Senator Menendez’s wife fears facing prison as he prepares to shift blame in bribery case, says report

Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.)’s wife is reportedly convinced she will be jailed on bribery charges due to a lack of money for legal representation, days after a court filing revealed her husband is poised to blame her for involving him in the scandal.

The senator’s wife, Nadine Menendez, has told friends that she expects to be convicted and thrown in prison as she is running out of money for her legal defense, the New York Post reported on Friday. Her husband has covered some of her legal costs, but she reportedly will soon not have enough money to continue her defense in court.

The Menendez couple have been accused of trading political favors to the Egyptian government and three businessmen for financial gains, after the FBI raided their $1.2 million house and found $480,000 in cash—”much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe”—along with gold bars worth around $100,000.

“[Nadine] has said that she thinks she is going to jail,” one of Nadine’s friends, Kim De Paola, told the New York Post, adding that “everyone despises Menendez, and any man who throws his wife under the bus does not deserve any respect.”

A legal filing made public on Thursday showed that the New Jersey Democrat, who has been indicted four times and faced bipartisan calls to resign from the Senate, is set to blame his wife for implicating him in the bribery scheme.

Nadine, according to the senator’s attorneys, “withheld information from Sen. Menendez or otherwise led him to believe that nothing unlawful was taking place,” thereby proving the “absence of any improper intent on Senator Menendez’s part.”

The senator’s wife is facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted on bribery and corruption charges. Her trial has been pushed to July after she asked for a delay due to a “serious medical condition,” while the senator’s trial is scheduled to begin on May 6.