NEWS
Bob Menendez’s wife must report to prison as judge denies delay
Kristie CattafiNorthJersey.com
July 8, 2026, 4:06 p.m. ET
The wife of former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez will report to jail on July 10 after a judge denied a four-month delay to continue her medical treatment for breast cancer
Judge Sidney Stein denied Nadine Arslanian Menendez’s extension after a teleconference call on Wednesday, July 8. She is ordered to surrender for service of sentence at the institution designated by the Bureau of Prisons before 2 p.m. on Friday, July 10
She was convicted in federal court in Manhattan as part of a wide-ranging corruption case that prosecutors said featured bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice in a multilevel scheme that involved trading envelopes of cash, gold bars and a new Mercedes-Benz for official acts that benefited Qatar and Egypt
Arslanian Menendez didn’t stand trial with the other defendants in the case. Her trial was delayed because she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Initially identified by the court only as a “serious medical condition,” the diagnosis was revealed by her husband during his trial
Arslanian Menendez was sentenced on Sept. 11, 2025, to more than four years — 54 months — in federal prison for her alleged part in the bribery and corruption scandal. She was also ordered to forfeit $922,188
The last-minute adjournment request came 90 minutes before the close of business before a three-day federal holiday and “merely eight days in advance of defendant’s scheduled surrender date,” Stein wrote in a request to Arslanian Menendez’s attorneys, giving them until Monday, July 6, to explain the late request
Court documents last year from Arslanian Menendez’s plastic and reconstructive surgeon said she had suffered complications from her initial breast cancer surgery that required additional surgery
“However, despite multiple surgeries, patient has unrelenting pain severely disrupting her life,” wrote the doctor, whose name was redacted in court papers. “This pain is so severe that it prevents her from sleeping.”
The letter said Arslanian Menendez continued to suffer from other “significant disabling symptoms” related to her cancer surgery
Her attorney wrote to the judge on Monday, saying the timing of the request “was not the result of strategic delay or any lack of urgency.”
Medical-related delays postponed one of Arslanian Menendez’s surgeries until June 10. “Mrs. Menendez, in consultation with her medical providers, proceeded with only part of the first surgery, the removal of her implants, leaving the reconstruction portion of the first surgery, and the final surgery, still ahead,” her attorney Edward J. Canter wrote to the judge
The United States Attorney’s office objected to Menendez’s request
“Although the Government sympathizes with the defendant’s medical situation, as it does with any defendant who has a medical condition that may require treatment during incarceration, the Government objects to an extension of the defendant’s surrender date based on the medical and related information provided by the defendant to date, the Court’s clear instructions at sentencing, and the BOP’s ability to render necessary medical care to the defendant,” United States Attorney Jay Clayton said.
In the state’s letter to Stein, it noted that the federal prison system cares for many inmates “with a variety of medical conditions, including conditions that were being handled by outside medical professionals before the inmate surrendered or conditions that warrant incarceration at a Federal Medical Facility.”
