Nadine Menendez, the wife of disgraced former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced on Thursday to 4 ½ years in federal prison for her part in the bribery and corruption scandal that landed her husband an 11-year sentence earlier this summer.
According to reports from inside the courtroom, Nadine Menendez sobbed as Judge Sidney Stein imposed the sentence, which also includes three years of supervised release.
In a statement to the judge, Nadine Menendez pointed to her husband’s role in the scandal, saying among other things, “I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet. The blindfold is off. I now know he’s not my savior. He’s not the man I thought he was.”
Defense lawyers for Nadine Menendez argued she was an unknowing participant in the scheme in which she and her husband obtained expensive gifts including cash, gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official political acts by the former senator.
Stein made clear Wednesday that Nadine Menendez was a central participant in the scheme and who knew what she was doing throughout it.
