In Nadine Menéndez’s trial, prosecutors portray her as ‘partner in the crime’ with her condemned husband

New York-Nadine Menéndez and her husband for the prison-ex-sin. Bob Menéndez – They were “partners in the crime,” a prosecutor told a jury on Monday when the opening statements began in their trial for accusations that the couple of power accepted bribes of cash and gold bars.

The senator for a long time was sentenced last year for accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of three businessmen in New Jersey. Now, a new jury will hear similar evidence about Nadine Menéndez, 58, after his trial was postponed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The US fiscal prosecutor Lara Pomrantz said that Nadine Menéndez “did the dirty work” for the 71 -year -old New Jersey Democrat, who is scheduled to inform the prison in June to begin fulfilling an 11 -year sentence.

Defensor lawyer Barry Coburn told the jury that they will have to exonerate Nadine Menéndez because there will be an “absolute and absolute failure of the evidence in this case.”

Nadine Menéndez declared himself innocent of the positions that she participated in the bribery scheme that resulted in her husband’s conviction.

“My wife, who had a reconstructive surgery of breast cancer only a few days ago, is being forced by the Government to go to trial tomorrow,” said Bob Menéndez last week on the social platform X before the jury selection took place.

“Only the arrogance of the SDNY can be so cruel and inhuman,” Menéndez added, referring to the Southern District of New York, where his trial is being carried out. “They should let her recover completely!”

Prosecutors said the couple was bribed in exchange for a variety of favors, including the use of the influence of the senator to help some of them in their treatment with foreign governments. Menéndez was also convicted of acting as a foreign agent for Egypt.

Menéndez resigned from the Senate after his conviction. A judge delayed the beginning of his prison mandate until June 6 to be able to attend his wife’s trial.

Throughout his two -month judgment, Nadine Menéndez was repeatedly mentioned by her dealings with businessmen. One of them testified that he bought a luxury car after the senator tried to make New Jersey prosecutors drop a criminal investigation that involves one of his associates.

In 2022, FBI agents raided the couple’s house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and found more than $ 100,000 in gold bars and more than $ 480,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes, shoe boxes, jackets and boots.

Bob Menéndez said in the trial that gold belonged to his wife and that the cash resulted from his habit of monopolizing money after his parents fled from Cuba in 1951 with only what they had hidden in a grandfather clock.

Menéndez, who won Another prosecution of corruption a decade agoHe has aligned with the criticism of Donald Trump to the judicial system, particularly in New York City, and has labeled the president in his March 17 complaint in X.

“This process is political and corrupted to the center,” he told reporters after his sentence. “I hope that President Trump cleans the Cess well and restores the integrity of the system.”