Reported by Tracey Tully

(Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/nyregion/nadine-menendez-blames-robert-menendez.html)

During his trial on federal corruption charges, Robert Menendez, the former senator from New Jersey, tried unsuccessfully to blame much of his trouble on his wife, Nadine.

But as she seeks to avoid a lengthy prison sentence of her own, Ms. Menendez and her lawyers are now taking a swipe at her husband and his defense strategy as she presents herself as a gullible wife scarred from a series of abusive relationships.

Ms. Menendez, 58, was a “convenient scapegoat” for her husband and the men convicted of bribing him, her lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo filed on Friday.

In the memo, they cite Ms. Menendez’s childhood in wartime Lebanon and her breast cancer diagnosis as they argue that a penalty of one year and one day would be an appropriate punishment when she is sentenced next month for taking bribes in exchange for arranging political favors from her powerful husband.

It’s a sentiment that Mr. Menendez, 71, now appears to share.