A federal judge has rejected Nadine Menendez’s effort to force prosecutors to return jewelry seized during the 2022 FBI search of her Englewood Cliffs home, ruling that the government may continue holding the items while her criminal appeal remains pending because they could become evidence again if she wins a new trial.
In a six-page opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein denied Menendez’s motion for the return of what she described as “personal jewelry, including inherited family jewelry,” finding both that the seizure was lawful and that prosecutors retain a legitimate evidentiary interest in the collection.
The opinion came four days after Menendez surrendered to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and began serving her 54-month sentence at a minimum security facility in Tallahassee, Florida.
The jewelry was seized on June 16, 2022, when FBI agents executed a search warrant at the home Menendez shared with her husband, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez. Agents also recovered nearly $500,000 in cash and gold bars that later became central evidence in the corruption prosecution. Prosecutors subsequently returned some jewelry to Nadine Menendez in late 2022 but retained other pieces.
Menendez argued that the government lacked probable cause to seize anything beyond an engagement ring allegedly purchased for her by one of her co-conspirators. She contended that the supporting FBI affidavit failed to establish a sufficient connection between the remaining jewelry and any criminal conduct and that, after her trial concluded, the government no longer had a legal basis to keep the property.
Stein disagreed on both counts.
The judge said the more than 90-page affidavit submitted by FBI Special Agent Mary Jo Corkery documented extensive evidence that Menendez received valuable gifts from co-conspirators, including mortgage payments, carpeting services, exercise equipment, a luxury vehicle and an engagement ring. The affidavit also described numerous contacts between Menendez and at least two jewelers, giving the magistrate judge ample probable cause to authorize the seizure of jewelry believed to be connected to the alleged bribery scheme, Stein wrote.
“The Court is convinced that a substantial basis existed” for the search warrant, Stein stated.
He found that the seized jewelry fell within the scope of the warrant authorizing agents to confiscate valuables believed to be evidence, proceeds, or instrumentalities of bribery, wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy offenses.
The court also rejected Menendez’s argument that the government must return the jewelry because her criminal case has concluded.
Although she has been convicted and sentenced, Menendez is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Stein ruled that prosecutors have a legitimate reason to retain the jewelry because it could become evidence in a retrial if her conviction is overturned.
Stein pointed to an argument made during Bob Menendez’s 2024 trial, when defense attorneys contended that large amounts of cash found in the couple’s home came from Nadine Menendez selling jewelry rather than from bribery proceeds.
If there is another trial, the judge wrote, prosecutors could seek to introduce the jewelry to rebut that claim by showing the cash was not generated through legitimate jewelry sales. That potential evidentiary value, Stein held, is enough to permit the government to continue holding the property while appellate proceedings continue.
Nadine Menendez was convicted after a separate five-week trial last year.
Bob Menendez is serving an 11-year prison sentence for bribery, extortion, and illegally acting as a representative of a foreign government. He is due to be released on May 18, 2034.