Bribery Trial: Nadine Menendez Deliberations Set for Monday

A jury is set to continue deliberations on Monday regarding the bribery case against Nadine Menendez, following assertions from a prosecutor that she played a significant role in a fraud scheme with her husband, Bob Menendez, a former U.S. Senator.
The jury began evaluating the accusations against Nadine Menendez, a resident of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on Friday afternoon in a Manhattan federal courtroom, but adjourned two hours later without any verdict.
Bob Menendez, aged 71 and a Democrat from New Jersey, is scheduled to commence an 11-year prison term in June and resigned from his senatorial position after being convicted the previous year.
On Thursday, Nadine Menendez’s defense attorney, Barry Coburn, presented a closing argument stating that the evidence presented did not sufficiently support a conviction.
In contrast, on Friday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Richenthal urged the jury to find Nadine Menendez guilty. He emphasized the improbability of over $450,000 in cash and a substantial amount of gold bars discovered in their residence by the FBI being mere gifts rather than bribes.
“They weren’t gifts,” Richenthal remarked. “They were bribes.” He characterized the case against Nadine Menendez as “consistent and overwhelming” and described her as an “active participant, a critical participant” in the bribery plot.
Nadine Menendez, who is of Armenian heritage and was born in Lebanon, began her relationship with the senator in early 2018 under the name Nadine Arslanian. Prosecutors have alleged her involvement in a bribery conspiracy alongside three businessmen from New Jersey soon after their relationship began. The couple later married in the fall of 2020.
During his senatorial career, which began in 2006, Bob Menendez engaged in the illegal activities while holding influential positions on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He lost his committee seat after being charged.
Nadine Menendez’s trial was postponed the previous year due to her breast cancer diagnosis and the necessity for surgery.