Wife and co-conspiratorof disgraced NJ senator said she is victim of abuse

The wife of disgraced former Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is a “deeply traumatized woman” who has suffered long-term abuse from men in her life before her marriage — similar to the women victimized by Harvey Weinstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs — say a group of forensic psychiatrists and her lawyers.

The alleged abuse was revealed in psychological reports introduced as evidence earlier this month to seek a shortened sentence for Nadine Menendez, who was convicted on 15 counts of bribery and corruption in April.

The filing does not allege that Nadine suffered any abuse by Senator Menendez.

Her husband is currently serving an 11-year sentence for his part in the same corruption scheme that saw the couple receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars as well as a Mercedes convertible for aiding New Jersey businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

The couple advised Egyptian officials on how to help the country cover up the murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, The Post most recently revealed.

In a letter to federal judge Sidney Stein, Nadine’s lawyers argue that she should serve only one year and a day in prison because she has never acted independently and always relied on men — including allegedly abusive relationships before her marriage to Menendez — to take care of her.

“Nadine’s victimization at the hands of men has had lasting and devastating effects that are sadly all too common,” said the Aug. 14 letter from Menendez’s lawyers to Stein. “Dr. Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist, detailed the psychological impact on victims in abusive relationships — both during and after the relationship — as a government witness at the recent trial of Sean Combs.”

But during her husband’s trial, prosecutors said that it was Nadine Menendez who brokered the contacts with New Jersey businessmen Fred Daibes and Wael Hana to score cash and a new car after she wrecked her own vehicle when she ran over and killed a pedestrian in 2018. At one point, she asked an Egyptian official who sought Menendez’s help over the purchase of weapons from the US and the Khashoggi murder, “What can the love of my life do for you?”

Nadine’s lawyers argue that she has been wrongly portrayed in court. In court papers, they claim she suffered trauma from a young age that impacted her ability to act independently when her father was kidnapped and spent a year in prison in Syria, and her entire family was forced to flee the civil war in their native Lebanon in the 1970s.

“Unfortunately, the trauma did not end there. Nadine was objectified since she was a teenager, and before her marriage to Senator Menendez, was involved in a series of romantic relationships, since a young age where she was emotionally and tragically physically abused,” her lawyers said in court papers.

The Post has reached out to Nadine Menendez’s lawyers for comment.

In one letter sent to Stein, a former New York University classmate recounted that Nadine had suffered a beating from a boyfriend that resulted in her multiple stitches.

“I have a memory of her showing me stitches on her scalp,” said Brent Burns. “Sometime later, I think she also told me that she eventually got a restraining order against him but that she was still afraid he would attack her again.”

Menendez, whose legal team blamed his corruption on his wife during his own trial, now claims that he regretted that he “didn’t fully preview what my defense attorney said about Nadine during my trial and in his summation,” he wrote in an Aug. 4 letter to Stein from the Allenwood Federal Correctional Institution where he is serving his sentence.

He claimed that his wife is still suffering from a brain fracture that has not fully healed from the alleged beating by the unnamed former boyfriend.

“Nadine is not her husband, [nor] her co-defendants,” said the letter to Stein from her legal team. “Despite all of the government’s efforts to present her as a vixen, the reality is far from that. She is a deeply traumatized woman … Her entire life has been marked by men who have taken advantage of her, and harmed her, in myriad ways.”