Nadine Menendez, Wife of Ex-Senator, Goes to Trial on Bribery Charges

Less than two months after former Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey was sentenced to 11 years in prison on federal corruption charges, the trial of his wife, Nadine Menendez, begins on Tuesday in Manhattan.

Ms. Menendez, 58, was charged with her husband and three New Jersey businessmen in a wide-ranging bribery scheme, but her case was postponed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery and a long recovery period.

The government has portrayed Ms. Menendez and her husband, a Democrat who once led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as partners in a web of corruption. An indictment accused the couple of conspiring to accept gold bars, cash, a Mercedes-Benz and other bribes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for Mr. Menendez’s helping the businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

Mr. Menendez’s two-month trial was full of international intrigue, backroom dealings and even romance. The jury heard from a government witness about the senator and his wife dining with an Egyptian official at the upscale Morton’s the Steakhouse, near the Capitol, unaware they were being photographed and video-recorded by undercover F.B.I. investigators. “What else can the love of my life do for you?” Ms. Menendez was overheard saying.

Mr. Menendez’s lawyers made sure jurors saw another side of the Menendezes, describing how the couple began dating in early 2018 and how the senator “fell for her,” as one lawyer, Avi Weitzman, said in his opening statement. “She is a beautiful and tall international woman, who grew up part of her life in Lebanon,” Mr. Weitzman said. She spoke four languages and received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from New York University.

They got engaged in October 2019 on a trip to India, where Mr. Menendez serenaded her at the Taj Mahal, singing “Never Enough” from “The Greatest Showman.” They were married in October 2020.