Nadine Menendez, the wife of former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, has been ordered to report to prison after a judge denied her request to delay the start of her sentence. According to ABC News, she must surrender before 2 p.m. tomorrow to begin serving her term, ending her effort to postpone the reckoning that followed her conviction in a sweeping corruption case.
The sentence awaiting her is a substantial one. Menendez was ordered to serve four and a half years behind bars, and with the judge's ruling, the clock is now running on when she must present herself to authorities to begin that prison term after months of legal wrangling.
Her request to the court had centered on her health. Menendez had asked that her surrender date be pushed back until October 30th, telling the court she needed the additional time to complete breast cancer reconstruction. The judge, however, rejected the request, leaving the far earlier deadline in place and setting up her imminent surrender.
The sentence stems from a corruption case that drew national attention. Last year, a jury found Nadine Menendez guilty of colluding with her husband to use his influence as a senator in exchange for bribes, part of a scheme that helped unravel one of the most prominent political careers in New Jersey.
Her husband is already paying a far steeper price. The former senator is serving an 11-year sentence for his role in the scheme, a punishment that dwarfs his wife's and underscores the seriousness with which the courts treated the case against the couple.
Now the couple's long legal saga is entering its final chapter. With both convicted and the former senator already incarcerated, the denial of Nadine Menendez's delay request means she too is set to begin her time in prison, bringing one of the highest-profile corruption cases in recent memory closer to its conclusion.