NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez\u2019s wife told a judge that her husband was \u201cnot the man I thought he was\u201d before she was sentenced Thursday to 4\u00bd years in prison for selling the powerful New Jersey politician\u2019s influence in exchange for bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein sentenced Nadine Menendez, 58, after she was convicted<\/a> in April of 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sobbing as she addressed the judge shortly before she was sentenced, Nadine Menendez described her husband as a manipulative liar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI put my life in his hands and he strung my like a puppet,\u201d she said. \u201cThe blindfold is off. I now know he\u2019s not my savior. He\u2019s not the man I thought he was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cas manipulative, hungry for money and the true force behind the conspiracies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he said she also wasn’t the \u201cinnocent observer of what was happening around you,\u201d as she was portrayed by her lawyer at her trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou knew what you were doing. Your role was purposeful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would never have imagined someone of his ranking putting me in this position,\u201d she said, though she acknowledged that in retrospect, she was a grown woman and should have known better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to the hearing, Bob Menendez submitted a letter to the judge saying he regretted that he didn\u2019t fully preview what his lawyer said about his wife during his trial and in closing arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stein said a prison term was important for general deterrence purposes: \u201cPeople have to understand there are consequences.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nadine Menendez won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of at least seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her lawyer, Sarah Krissoff, asked that she serve only a year behind bars, citing her difficult recovery from breast cancer, which was diagnosed just prior to last year’s trial, when she was to be tried along with her husband. She ended up being tried separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bob Menendez<\/a>, 71, is serving an 11-year sentence after his conviction on charges of taking bribes, extortion, and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez played a large and crucial role in her husband\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n