Bob Menendez's wife says she was ex-senator's 'puppet' as she gets 4½
years in prison for bribery
[September 12, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s sobbing wife told a
judge that her husband was “not the man I thought he was” before she was
sentenced Thursday to 4½ years in prison for selling the powerful New
Jersey politician’s influence in exchange for bribes of cash, gold bars
and a luxury car.
U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, for
her April conviction for colluding from 2018 to 2023 with her husband,
the former Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, in a variety of corrupt schemes, some involving assisting the
Egyptian government.
Nadine Menendez, tearfully addressing the judge for several minutes
before he sentenced her, described her husband as a manipulative liar.
“I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet,” she said.
“The blindfold is off. I now know he’s not my savior. He’s not the man I
thought he was.”
Standing outside the courthouse afterward, she said she doesn't plan to
divorce her 71-year-old husband, who is serving an 11-year sentence for
taking bribes, extortion, and acting as an agent of the Egyptian
government.
Stein told the defendant that she wasn't the person she was portrayed as
during last year's trial of her husband and two New Jersey businessmen,
when the judge said she was painted as “the true force behind the
conspiracies.”
But he said she also wasn't the “innocent observer of what was happening
around you,” as her lawyer claimed.
“You knew what you were doing. Your role was purposeful,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said Nadine Mendendez was “the
second-most culpable member” of the scheme, after her husband, and that
she “did so without hesitation.”
“The defendant was not a bit player" the prosecutor said. “She played a
critical role in selling the power of a U.S. senator.”
When she spoke, Nadine Menendez partly blamed her husband, saying she
was duped by his power and stature and that she felt compelled to do
whatever he wanted, such as calling or meeting with certain people.
“I would never have imagined someone of his ranking putting me in this
position,” she said, though she acknowledged that in retrospect, she was
a grown woman and should have known better.
Prior to the hearing, Bob Menendez submitted a letter to the judge
saying he regretted that he didn’t fully preview what his lawyer said
about his wife during his trial and in closing arguments.
“To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and
therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong,” he wrote.
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Nadine Menendez, wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, leaves
Manhattan federal court in New York, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP
Photo/Richard Drew)
In addition to prison time, Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez to three
years of supervised release. He said he granted her leniency in part
because of the trial she endured, her difficult childhood in
Lebanon, her abusive romantic partners, her health conditions and
her age.
Stein said a prison term was important for general deterrence
purposes: “People have to understand there are consequences."
Nadine Menendez won’t have to surrender to prison until next summer.
Stein set a reporting date of July 10, accommodating a defense
request that she be allowed to remain free to complete necessary
medical procedures before she heads behind bars. Federal prosecutors
did not object to the request.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of at least seven years.
Her lawyer, Sarah Krissoff, asked that her client serve only a year
behind bars, citing longstanding trauma, past abusive relationships,
a brain injury and her difficult recovery from breast cancer. That
diagnosis came just prior to last year's trial, when she was to be
tried along with her husband. She ended up being tried separately.
“People with brain injuries don’t just happen to engage in yearslong
white-collar crimes. They choose to do so,” Pomerantz shot back.
“Her choices are what caused that conduct.”
After the sentencing, Krissoff said her client plans to appeal.
Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez played a large and crucial role in
her husband’s crimes, serving as an intermediary between the senator
and three New Jersey businessmen who literally lined his coat
pockets with tens of thousands of dollars in cash in return for
favors he could deliver with his political clout.
During a 2022 FBI raid on the couple's New Jersey home,
investigators found $480,000 in cash, gold bars worth an estimated
$150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
Prosecutors said that, among his other corrupt acts, the senator met
with Egyptian intelligence officials and speeded that country's
access to U.S. military aid as part of a complex effort to help his
bribe-paying associates, one of whom had business dealings with the
Egyptian government.
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