Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez's wife convicted in bribery scheme

Nadine Menendez on Monday was convicted of joining forces with her husband, former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), to accept lavish bribes in exchange for his political clout.

A jury found the disgraced former senator's wife guilty of all 15 counts she faced, including bribery, obstruction of justice and conspiring to turn her husband into an agent of Egypt.

Bob Menendez faced many of the same charges. He was convicted last year — the first public official ever convicted of acting as a foreign agent while in office — and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He resigned from the Senate soon after.

Federal prosecutors accused Nadine and Bob Menendez of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and lavish gifts from three New Jersey businessmen who sought help with legal troubles and business affairs.

At trial, they described her as critical to the scheme, acting as a go-between the senator, the businessmen and Egyptian government officials. Two of the businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were convicted at trial alongside Bob Menendez, and the third businessman pleaded guilty before the trial began.

Bob Menendez protected Hana’s halal meat certification monopoly and intervened in separate criminal cases involving the other two men. As the powerful chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he also signed off on several multimillion-dollar weapons sales to Egypt, which he repeatedly asked his wife to relay to the businessmen, who then passed on the intel to Egyptian officials, between 2018 and 2022. He stepped away from that post after being indicted, in line with Senate Democratic Conference rules.

Nadine Menendez was initially set to stand trial alongside her husband and the three men but her case was severed from the others after she informed the court about her breast cancer.

During Bob Menendez's trial, his attorneys at times sought to pin the blame on the senator’s wife, contending she hid her dealings with the businessmen from him. Nadine Menendez’s attorneys argued during her trial that the senator's dealings with the businessmen were nothing more than a politician's work for his constituents. Both she and her husband maintain they did not accept bribes.

“These things we’re talking about here are unproven,” said Barry Coburn, Nadine Menendez's lawyer, according to the Associated Press.

Her sentencing is set for June 12, six days after her husband is scheduled to report to prison.

The Associated Press contributed.