Washington – Nadine Menendez, the wife of Senator Bob Menendez, is being treated for grade 3 breast cancer and will undergo a mastectomy, her husband announced Thursday.
The New Jersey Democrat announced his wife's cancer diagnosis in a statement while his trial was underway in federal court in Manhattan. He and his wife are accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen for political favors.
“We are obviously concerned about the severity and advanced stage of the disease,” Menendez said in a statement. “She will need further surgery and possibly radiation. We hope and pray for the best results.”
Nadine Menendez was originally going to be tried with her husband and two businessmen: Wael Hana, owner of the halal meat company IS EG Halal, and Fred Daibes, a real estate developer.
But a judge postponed her trial until later this summer after saying she suffered from a “serious medical condition” that will require surgery and weeks of recovery.
The senator, his wife and the two businessmen have pleaded not guilty.
Menendez said his wife asked him to reveal her diagnosis “as a result of continued press inquiries and reporters following my wife.”
It comes a day later his lawyers pinned the blame about Nadine Menendez during the opening statements of his corruption trial, in which she said she kept her husband in the dark about her financial problems and business relationships with the co-defendants.
“She dazzled Bob,” said Menendez's attorney, Avi Weitzman.
But, he said, “she hid things from him.”
“She kept him in the dark about what she was asking others to give her. She was outgoing; she was cheerful. But she wasn't about to let Bob know she was having financial problems,” Weitzman said. 'So what did Nadine do? She tried to get money and property in any way she could.”
