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NEW YORK (W) — Nadine Menendez must report to federal prison by 2 p.m. Friday after a judge denied her last-minute request to delay the start of her 54-month sentence while she completes breast cancer reconstruction surgery.
U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected the request following a telephone conference Thursday afternoon, ordering that Menendez surrender to the Bureau of Prisons as originally scheduled.
“The Court denies defendant’s request for an extension of her surrender date,” Stein wrote in the order. “The defendant shall surrender at the institution designated by the Bureau of Prisons before 2:00 p.m. on July 10, 2026.”
Menendez had asked the court to postpone her surrender until Oct. 30, arguing she needed additional time to complete medically necessary breast cancer reconstruction. Her attorneys said the procedures were part of her ongoing recovery after undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
The judge had previously delayed her surrender for months following her sentencing to allow her to receive cancer treatment.
Last September, Stein sentenced the 58-year-old to four and a half years in prison after a federal jury found her guilty of participating in a yearslong bribery scheme alongside her husband, former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez.
Prosecutors said Nadine Menendez played a key role in facilitating corrupt dealings between the former New Jersey senator and three businessmen, serving as an intermediary in exchange for bribes that included cash, gold bars and a luxury Mercedes-Benz convertible.
She was convicted of helping her husband use his political influence to benefit the businessmen and, in some instances, assist the Egyptian government.
During her sentencing, Menendez tearfully told the judge that her husband had manipulated her and said, “He’s not the man I thought he was.”
Judge Stein rejected defense claims that she was merely following her husband’s lead, telling her she was not “an innocent observer” and that her participation in the scheme was “purposeful.”
Federal prosecutors described her as “the second-most culpable member” of the conspiracy after her husband.
Bob Menendez, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is serving an 11-year federal prison sentence after being convicted on bribery, extortion and foreign agent charges stemming from the same corruption investigation.
Investigators who searched the couple’s New Jersey home in 2022 recovered about $480,000 in cash, gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible that prosecutors said were tied to the bribery scheme.
Nadine Menendez has said she plans to appeal her conviction.
ALSO READ: Ex-New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years for bribery conviction
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