The wife of disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez threw him under the bus as she was sentenced to prison Thursday for her role in the couple’s political pay-to-play scheme

Nadine Menendez, 58, seeking leniency painted herself as a victim of her husband’s cunning manipulations before being set to jail for four and half years for her role in the lucrative corruption scheme

“I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet,” Nadine Menendez said through tears as she pled for forgiveness from Manhattan federal Judge Sidney Stein

“The blindfold is off. I now know he is not my savior. He is not the man I thought he was,” she said, putting all the blame on her husband who just begun his 11-sentence

At trial prosecutors who accused Nadine Menendez of “putting the senator’s power up for sale,” said she was the “linchpin” of the plot

Judge Stein said he did not believe the weeping defendant’s claim of innocence before sentencing her to more than four years in prison

Nadine Menendez [right], the wife of jailed Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey leaves Manhattan Federal Court after her sentencing on Sept. 11, where she told the judge “I put my life in his hands and [Bob] strung me like a puppet,” pleading for leniency

Disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife Nadine threw him under the bus as she was sentenced to prison Thursday for her role in the couple’s corrupt scheme. The Lebanese born socialite portrayed herself as a victim of the cunning manipulations of her husband of five years.
“I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet,” Nadine Menendez, 58, said through tears, pleading for forgiveness from Judge Sidney Stein at Manhattan Federal Court in NYC.
“The blindfold is off. I now know he is not my savior. He is not the man I thought he was,” she said.

Nadine Menendez was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison on Thursday for her role in the Pay-2-Play that sunk her husband’s political ship

This tone was not novel. Nadine at trial presented herself as a “deeply traumatized woman” who has suffered long-term abuse from men in her life before her marriage, a defense argument which according to forensic psychiatrists and her lawyers. was similar to the plight of the women victimized by Harvey Weinstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The purported abuse was revealed in psychological reports introduced as evidence earlier this month to seek a shortened sentence for Nadine Menendez, who was convicted on 15 counts of bribery and corruption in April.

It was a second marriage for Menendez when he wed the Lebanese born beauty in 2020. Prosecutors said Nadine immediately began plotting to leverage her husband’s political influence for cash and gold, as well as a Mercedes Benz convertible

Curiously, the filing does not allege that Nadine suffered any abuse by Senator Menendez. Instead, in a letter to federal judge Stein, defense lawyers argue that Mrs Menendez should serve only one year and a day in prison because she has never acted independently, rather and always relied on men, including allegedly abusive relationships before her marriage to Menendez, to take care of her.
The plea state that “Nadine’s victimization at the hands of men has had lasting and devastating effects that are sadly all too common.” said
The letter from her lawyers to the judge dated August 14, invoked prior trial introduction of this defense: “Dr. Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist, detailed the psychological impact on victims in abusive relationships, both during and after the relationship, as a government witness at the recent trial of Sean Combs,” the letter highlights.
The defendant had been wrongly portrayed in court papers, claiming she suffered trauma from a young age that impacted her ability to act independently when her father was kidnapped and spent a year in prison in Syria, and her entire family was forced to flee the civil war in their native Lebanon in the 1970s.

Ex-Senator Bob Menendez [left], has just started serving 11 years in prison for the corruption scheme in which he received vast sums in cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes, peddling political influence in DC to aid businessmen as well as the governments of Egypt and Qatar

Those arguments sought to nullify the submission of prosecutors during her husband’s trial that she began scheming to collect bribes shortly after starting to date Bob, who at the time was a powerful US senator.
Prosecutors say Nadine Menendez “put the senator’s power up for sale,” and brokered contacts with New Jersey businessmen Fred Daibes and Wael Hana which netted cash and scored a new luxury car for herself after she wrecked her own vehicle when she ran over and killed a pedestrian in 2018.
More damaging was the submission that at one point, she asked an Egyptian official who sought Menendez’s help over the purchase of weapons from the US and the Khashoggi murder cover up, “What can the love of my life do for you?”

The disgraced New Jersey senator’s wife, seen [photo], arriving court for her sentencing on Thursday, was also found guilty of corruption or her role in the scheme. She was handed a four and half year prison sentence

Ultimately Judge Stein declared he didn’t believe the sobbing defendant’s claims that she was an innocent victim in the couple’s extensive political corruption scheme. He handed down a sentence of four and a half years in prison.
Prosecutors had asked for a term of seven years, but the judge said he gave Nadine the lighter sentence because of her battle with breast cancer and other mitigating factors.
“You knew what you were doing, you were always purposeful,” Stein told Nadine.

Distancing herself from the crime which earned her conviction, a teary Nadine Menendez told Judge Sidney Stein “I put my life in his [Bob Menendez], hands and he strung me like a puppet,” pleading for leniency at her sentencing hearing in Manhattan Federal Court today

Jurors convicted Nadine on April 15 of separate corruption charges for serving as what the feds called the “linchpin” of a brazen scheme to leverage the veteran politician’s powerful post in return for gold bars, a luxury convertible and other bribes.
Federal prosecutors accused Nadine Menendez acting as the “go-between” connecting her husband with businessmen who funneled bribes of cash, luxury auto and gold bars to the couple, obtained from the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
In exchange, the disgraced Democrat used his political clout to sway decisions on the hill, obtaining favors for the paid up businessmen.
As head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the court heard, Menendez a three-term Democratic senator lobbied colleagues to unfreeze $300 million in Egyptian military aid that had been held up due to human rights concerns.
The downfall for Bob Menendez, 71, was complete in June when he was handed an 11-year prison sentence following his conviction for parlaying his powerful Senate position to personal riches through cash and material bribes, including the $486,471 in cash spread out all over the couple’s residence and 13 gold bars worth $150,000 that FBI agents found inside a safe in their bedroom.