Prosecutors Seek 7-Year Prison Term for Nadine Menendez

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended a prison sentence of at least seven years for Nadine Menendez, who was convicted of being at the center of a yearslong bribery scheme with her husband, Robert Menendez.

Mr. Menendez, a former senator from New Jersey, is serving an 11-year prison term for his role in the conspiracy. Two businessmen convicted of giving the couple bribes of gold bullion and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in exchange for political favors from Mr. Menendez, are also serving lengthy sentences.

Ms. Menendez “did not commit bribery reluctantly, fleetingly or on a small scale,” prosecutors in the office of Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told the judge.

“She did so eagerly, for years, and in a scheme implicating foreign relations, national security and the integrity of state and federal law enforcement,” the prosecutors said.

Ms. Menendez, 58, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11 in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Ms. Menendez’s lawyers have asked the judge, Sidney H. Stein, to allow her to avoid a lengthy period of incarceration, recommending that he impose a sentence of one year and one day. Her lawyers noted that Ms. Menendez has been battling breast cancer and that a lengthy sentence would “obliterate any possibility” she would receive proper medical care.

But the prosecutors, in their filing, said they did not object to the judge setting a surrender date far enough in the future to give Ms. Menendez time “to promptly schedule and to complete the recommended surgeries and recovery” before beginning her sentence.