Judge denies sentencing delay for former US Senator Bob Menendez

Disgraced former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez will be sentenced on corruption charges as scheduled at the end of January, and his wife’s trial will be moved from January to February, a judge said Monday.

U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein in Manhattan rejected Menendez’s request to delay his sentencing for his conviction on bribery and other charges until his wife finishes her trial on similar charges, possibly sometime in March.

The New Jersey Democrat’s lawyers last week requested a new sentencing date on the grounds that the jury chosen to hear the case against his wife, Nadine Menendez, would be tainted if jurors heard about the outcome of the former senator’s sentencing during the trial.

Menendez, 70, was convicted in July of 16 corruption charges brought by prosecutors who asserted that he used his power in the Senate over a five-year stretch through 2022 to do favors that benefitted three New Jersey businessmen who paid him with gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.

Menendez, who once led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy, extortion, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent.

The verdict made Menendez the first United States senator to be found guilty of acting as an agent of a foreign power and the seventh to be convicted of a federal crime while in office.

Two of the businessmen were convicted along with Menendez while a third pleaded guilty, cooperated with the government, and testified against him.

Nadine Menendez has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Originally set to stand trial with her husband, her trial was put off after a breast cancer diagnosis led to surgery.

Stein on Monday moved her January 21 trial to February 5. Her husband, as scheduled, will be sentenced on January 29.