Former United States Senator Bob Menendez He asked a federal judge on Thursday to postpone his sentencing at the end of January on charges of bribery and acting as an Egyptian government agent, saying his family would suffer a “tremendous emotional toll” if the New Jersey Democrat is sentenced during his wife’s trial. .
What you need to know
- Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez asked a federal judge on Thursday to postpone his late-January sentencing on charges of bribery and acting as an Egyptian government agent, saying his family would suffer a “tremendous emotional toll” if the New Jersey Democrat is sentenced during his wife’s trial.
- His lawyers told Judge Sidney H. Stein wrote in a letter that Nadine Menendez would face a jury that might find it impossible not to hear her husband’s verdict if it happened on its scheduled date, eight days after her trial.
- Bob Menendez’s lawyers wrote that the former senator “often cared for his wife’s physical and emotional needs.”
His lawyers told Judge Sidney H. Stein wrote in a letter that Nadine Menendez would face a jury that might find it impossible not to hear her husband’s verdict if it happened on his scheduled date, eight days after her trial.
“Simply put, the current timeline poses an unnecessary and overwhelming risk of poisoning the proceedings against Nadine,” the lawyers wrote.
They recommended that sentencing be postponed to a date immediately after his wife’s trial, which may not end until March.
Menendez, 70, resigned in the weeks following his resignation July conviction Charged with 16 charges, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and obstruction of justice. He has appealed the conviction after prosecutors recently revealed that jurors were allowed to see some evidence during deliberations that was supposed to be excluded from the trial.
His wife, whose trial was postponed after she learned she would need surgery to treat breast cancer, faces the same evidence as her husband in Manhattan federal court. Her trial is scheduled to begin on January 21, while her husband is scheduled to be sentenced on January 29.
Bob Menendez’s lawyers wrote that the former senator “often cared for his wife’s physical and emotional needs.”
“His sentencing during his wife’s trial will of course have an enormous emotional impact on both Senator Menendez and his family,” they said. “Asking him to face judgment during the criminal trial of his wife, who is also in the midst of an ongoing battle against a life-threatening disease, is too much to ask of any man.”
In a separate letter to the judge, Nadine Menendez’s attorney urged the judge to reject prosecutors’ suggestion that the ruling be imposed immediately before trial.
“If Mr. Menendez is sentenced so soon before our client goes to trial, it will likely have a devastating impact on our client, which I believe will make it difficult, if not impossible, for her to focus on and participate meaningfully in the trial,” he said. wrote attorney Barry Coburn.
A prosecution spokesman declined to comment.
Prosecutors say nearly $150,000 in gold bullion, along with $480,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible were found during a 2022 FBI raid on the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home Nadine Menendez shared with her husband, and were given For a couple over four years. For a year so that the Senator could provide services to three New Jersey businessmen.
Two of the three businessmen were convicted along with Menendez while a third businessman pleaded guilty to the charges and testified at his trial.
At the time he was charged in the fall of 2023, Menendez held a powerful position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he was forced to relinquish.
