Menendez's wife seeks leniency in sentencing

Ex-senator's spouse says she suffered from 'trauma'

By: Kristie Cattafi
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Attorney for Nadine Arslanian Menendez says her prison sentence for her bribery and corruption convictions should be no longer than one year plus a day instead of the suggested eight years.
..... The wife of former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, who is serving a federal prison sentence after he was convicted on similar charges ha involved envelopes of cash and gold bars, will be sentenced on September 11 [2025] for her part in the international scheme.
..... Lawyers for Arslanian Menendez said she suffers from a "lifetime of trauma" for being repeatedly abused over the years - physically and emotionally - "by the very people she thought she could trust."
..... The court documents, filed on August 22, [2025] included reports from doctors and 64 pages of character witness letters on Arslanian Menendez's behalf.
..... Her lawyers argued she is still recovering from breast cancer and will require additional surgeries, recovery and physical therapy that they said the Bureau of Prisons is "ill equipped" to handle.
..... "But even a sentence anywhere near the 96-month sentence recommended by the Probation Department will ensure that Nadine Menendez dies in prison," her attorneys wrote to the judge.
..... Menendez is serving a federal prison sentence after he was convicted on bribery and corruption charges in 2024.
..... Menendez, his wife, and three New Jersey businessmen - Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe - were charged with orchestrating a bribery scheme. Meneneze and his wife allegedly received, among other things cash, gold bars and a luxury car in exchange for the use of his political influence.
..... The federal indictment against the group was firs unsealed in September 2023 and was updated with superseding indictments three times - in October of that year [2023] and in January and March 2024.
..... Arslanian Menendez was charged, and later found guilty, in a sprawling indictment brought by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York on 15 counts, including bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice in a multi-level scheme that traded in envelopes of cash, gold bars and a new Mercedes for official acts that benefited Qatar and Egypt. After a nine-week trail last summer, [2024] Menendez, Daibes and Hana were found guilty on a combination of 18 counts, including bribery. Arslanian Menendez was initially scheduled to be trial alongside Menendez, Daibes and Hana, but her trial was delayed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
..... Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Hana more than eight years and Daibes seven years. Daibes was find $1.75 million; Hana was fined $1.3 million. all three are appealing the outcome of their trials.
..... "Nadine is not her husbands, or her co-defendants. Despite all of the government's efforts to present her as a vixen, the reality is far from that," her lawyers wrote. "She is a deeply traumatized woman. Her entire life has been marked by men whew have taken advantage of her, and harmed her , in myriad ways. An extended sentence is not warranted, needed, or appropriate under these circumstances."

What did Menendez say?

..... During the senator's trial, his attorney blamed his wife, calling her "dazzling,: and said they had separate lives even while living together. Arslanian Menedez hid financial challenges from her husband before they met and during their time together, Menendez's lawyer, Avi Weitzman said in his opening remarks, Weitzman also pointed out that the now-infamous gold bars were found in Arslanian's locked closet, not Menendez's.
..... "I regret that I didn't fully preview what my Defense Renovator said about Nadine during my trial and in his summation," Menendez wrote in his character letter for his wife from prison. "To suggest that Nadine was money hungry or in financial need, and therefore would solicit others for help, is simply wrong," Menendez detailed "traumatic events" that have affected his wife a young age, including escaping from Lebanon during its civil war, her father being kidnapped for ransom, and her nightmares from watching children who were dying.
..... Menendez said the financial troubles referred to during her trial about her mortgage and payments for her car - that the state argued were bribe payments - were a result of "being concerned about a potential lawsuit as a result of an automobile accident, not out of financial duress."
..... "The decisions she made to insulate herself from that liability were mistakes," Menendez said.
..... Arslanian Menendez struck and killed a man while driving her Mecedes-Benz on Main Street in Bogota in December 2018.
..... Details about the crash, which unfolded on the evening of December 12, 2018, are outlined in a Bogota police Department report obtained and first reported by NorthJersey.com .
..... The man who died, Richard Koop, receive a settlement "for the maximum amount." Koop's ex-wife said her family received $60,000 after attorney's fees were taken out. Arslanian Menendez-who began dating Menendez in February 2018 and marred the senator in October 2020 - was not charged in the incident.
..... A month after the crash, according to an indictment brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Arlslanian Menendez was texting Wael Hana, the Egyptian American businessman also indicted in the bribery scheme, about her lack of a car. Hana later provided her with a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible.
..... The ex-senator continued in his letter that his wife suffered from an abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend that resulted in a "Severe beating: that left her hospitalized and caused her to lose her sense of smell and taste and a brain injury. Menendez said he witnessed the stalking when he began to date her.
..... Menendez also noted that his wife, has been cancer free for a year, but still requires reconstruction procedures.
..... "Taken as a whole, my wife has already suffered more than most people in a lifetime. She has lost everything she cared about," Menedez said, noting that since he;s incarcerated, he can no longer be her caregiver.
..... "To imprison Nadine would not recognize the trauma she has suffered, how it has affected her and her judgment, and I would respectfully say would not have any greater deterrent effect," he wrote, closing his letter. "She has been punished greatly in her life. If Justice tempered by mercy is to mean anything, Nadian should not be imprisoned. There are more compassionate and equitable sentences that she could fact and serve the cause of justice. I ask Your Honor to do just that."

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