On Thursday, former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez requested that a federal judge postpone his sentencing for bribery charges and allegations of acting as an agent for the Egyptian government. He argued that if his sentencing took place as scheduled at the end of January, it would cause “tremendous emotional toll” on his family, particularly during his wife’s trial.
Menendez’s legal team sent a letter to Judge Sidney H. Stein, stating that if the sentencing occurred during his wife’s trial, the jury would likely hear about it, making it difficult for them not to be influenced by the news. “Put simply, the current timeline poses an unnecessary and overwhelming risk of poisoning the proceedings against Nadine,” his lawyers wrote.
His defense team suggested rescheduling the sentencing to after his wife’s trial, which may not wrap up until March. The 70-year-old Menendez had stepped down from his Senate seat shortly after his conviction in July on multiple charges, including bribery, extortion, fraud, and obstruction of justice. Recently, Menendez contested the conviction after learning that jurors had been exposed to evidence during deliberations that should not have been seen.
Nadine Menendez, facing similar charges to her husband, is set to begin her trial on January 21. Due to her health, her trial had been delayed, as she required surgery for breast cancer. Bob Menendez is scheduled to be sentenced on January 29, just days after his wife’s trial begins.
In the letter, Bob Menendez’s attorneys emphasized that he plays a significant role in caring for his wife’s physical and emotional well-being. “Sentencing him during his wife’s trial will of course take a tremendous emotional toll on both Senator Menendez and his family,” the lawyers noted. “To ask him to face sentencing 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, Nadine Menendez’s lawyer, Barry Coburn, urged the judge to reject the idea of holding Bob Menendez’s sentencing before the trial. Coburn argued that such a scenario would be “devastating” to his client, potentially impairing her ability to focus and participate in her defense. “If Mr. Menendez were sentenced shortly before our client proceeds to trial, that likely would have a devastating impact on our client, which, I believe, would make it difficult if not impossible for her to concentrate on, and participate meaningfully in, her trial,” Coburn wrote.
The bribery case centers around nearly $150,000 in gold bars, $480,000 in cash, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible that were discovered during a 2022 FBI raid on the home in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, where Bob and Nadine Menendez lived. Prosecutors allege that the couple received these gifts over four years in exchange for the senator doing favors for three New Jersey businessmen. Two of these businessmen were convicted alongside Menendez, while a third pleaded guilty and testified at the trial.
At the time of the charges, Menendez held significant influence as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position he had to relinquish following the indictment.
{Matzav.com}