Nadine Menendez, wife of ex-senator, found guilty on all counts

Nadine Menendez has been found guilty on all counts, a verdict that follows the downfall of her husband, and co-conspirator, ex-Senator Bob Menendez.

According to several news outlets present for the trial, a jury found Nadine Menendez guilty on 15 charges, among them bribery, obstruction of justice, and helping her husband become an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government. Her sentencing before Judge Sidney Stein is set to take place on June 12.

The two Menendezes, alongside a trio of North Jersey businessmen, were charged in 2023 with engineering a wide-ranging corruption scheme involving cash bribes and gifts in exchange for influence in Washington. Nadine Menendez was accused of facilitating the connections between her husband and his bribers, and she herself financially benefited from the transactions, most famously in her receipt of a Mercedes-Benz.

Senator Menendez’s political career was near-instantly ended by the charges, with top state Democrats abandoning him en masse ahead of the 2024 election. Last July, he was convicted on all charges following a lengthy trial, and he was sentenced to 11 years in prison earlier this year.

Nadine Menendez’s trial, meanwhile, was delayed for nearly a year due to her breast cancer diagnosis. But once the trial did begin, prosecutors were able to use much of the same evidence that had convicted Bob Menendez to show how she had used her husband’s Senate position for personal gain.

Both Menendezes have long claimed that the charges are politically motivated, and Bob Menendez has begun making explicit appeals for a pardon from President Donald Trump. Nadine Menendez echoed that rhetoric today; “I think this is politically motivated and this is all political,” she said, per Politico.