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New York|Judge Denies Nadine Menendez’s Request to Postpone Trial Further
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/nyregion/nadine-menendez-bribery-trial.html
Ms. Menendez, the wife of New Jersey’s former senator, is scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 21, eight days before her husband is expected to be sentenced for taking bribes.
Dec. 9, 2024Updated 1:21 p.m. ET
Nadine Menendez arrived at federal court in Manhattan on Monday without her husband, New Jersey’s disgraced former U.S. senator, her right arm in a sling and her face largely covered by a pink surgical mask.
But the judge overseeing her case, Sidney H. Stein, was apparently unpersuaded by her lawyer’s argument that Ms. Menendez, 57, would be unable to effectively participate in her own criminal defense while she is treated for breast cancer.
Judge Stein, of Federal District Court, said her trial would start, as planned, on Jan. 21 — eight days before her husband, Robert Menendez, and two of her onetime close friends are expected to be sentenced for participating in a vast international bribery scheme.
Ms. Menendez, according to an 18-count indictment and evidence introduced during her husband’s trial, was often the go-between, shuttling messages and accepting bribes meant for the senator.
Ms. Menendez’s diagnosis with what her lawyers at the time described as a “serious medical condition” was first revealed in April, weeks before she was expected to stand trial alongside her husband and two other men, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana.
Judge Stein granted her springtime request for a delayed trial; Mr. Menendez, 70, later said that his wife would undergo a mastectomy as she was treated for what he described as an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Her absence from the trial freed Mr. Menendez’s lawyers to depict Ms. Menendez as a greedy, conniving spouse who had duped the former senator, a lawyer by trade who once led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
But on Monday, Judge Stein ruled there was no need to delay her trial further.
Ms. Menendez said nothing during the public portion of the hearing and declined to comment as she walked out with her lawyer, Barry Coburn, who also declined to comment.
When the F.B.I. searched the couple’s home in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., they discovered gold bars, nearly half a million dollars in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Jose Uribe, an insurance broker who nurtured a close friendship with Ms. Menendez, pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors. He testified at Mr. Menendez’s trial that he had given Ms. Menendez the Mercedes as a bribe to win help from the senator, then her boyfriend, in dispatching unrelated criminal charges that had ensnared Mr. Uribe and his business associates.
A correction was made on
Dec. 9, 2024
:
An earlier version of this article misstated Nadine Menendez’s age. She is 57, not 58.
Tracey Tully is a reporter for The Times who covers New Jersey, where she has lived for more than 20 years. More about Tracey Tully
