Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal bribery trial of Nadine Menendez, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez. The couple and three New Jersey businessmen were indicted in 2023 for a wide-ranging corruption scheme.

Bob Menendez was found guilty on all 16 of the counts he faced for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and other luxuries. In exchange for his political influence and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. He was sentenced two months ago to 11 years in prison.

Nadine Menendez faces similar corruption charges, but her trial was postponed multiple times after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through a long recovery period following surgery.

In what appeared to be a Hail Mary on Tuesday, Bob Menendez posted a message tagging President Trump on social media writing that his wife was “being forced by the government to go to trial” despite having reconstructive surgery “just days ago.” He slammed the work of the Southern District of New York where the trial is taking place by calling prosecutors “cruel and inhumane.”

“I’d be surprised if the president or his designees even respond to that,” said former Monmouth County prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni. “In practice, the president is supposed to stay out of federal prosecutions like this, and I’m sure that’s what’s going to happen here.”

“Is it a Hail Mary? I don’t know. But one thing we recognize is the term speedy trial. And is typically invoked by defendant, but its also a right to United States citizens as well,” said Gramiccioni. “So that speedy trial applies with some level of force like it would for the defendant in this case, which has been hanging out there for a long time in terms of the adjournments of Ms. Menendez’s trial which has already happened on a couple of occasions.”

Gramiccioni said he expects the Southern District will get a jury in the box more quickly than during ex-Sen. Bob Menendez’s trial and anticipates prosecutors will have an easier case to make.

“From the government side they’ve already been through this once, and it’s a little bit easier I think to present the case against Ms. Menendez because she as the alleged intermediary was doing a lot of the communications with the co-conspirators,” said Gramiccioni. “There’s more tangible evidence that can be presented against her emails, text communications otherwise.”