Disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) spent some of his final hours as a free man Monday running errands with a fellow convicted felon, his wife Nadine.
The couple was spotted walking side by side into an Englewood Cliffs, NJ credit union hours before the ex-senator is expected to report to a Pennsylvania federal prison to begin serving an 11-year sentence for bribery and corruption.
Menendez, 71, will do his time at the Federal Correctional Institution Schuylkill in Minersville, Pa.
The medium security facility, which has an adjacent minimum security satellite camp, houses more than 1,200 inmates and is about a two-and-half hour drive from the former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman’s Garden State home.
Menendez was sentenced in January after being found guilty last July of trading favors for foreign governments and businessmen in exchange for cash, gold bars and even a Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Nadine, 58, was found guilty of federal corruption charges in April for her role in the sprawling bribery scheme.
Federal agents who raided the Menendezes’ cluttered Englewood Cliffs house in June 2022 found 13 gold bars worth $150,000 tucked inside a bedroom safe – landing the ex-senator the nickname “Gold Bar Bob” – and nearly $500,000 in cash stuffed in jackets, boots and envelopes all over the house.
Menendez did favors for Egypt and Qatar while go-betweens showered him and Nadine with the bribes, trial evidence revealed.
Nadine, who has yet to be sentenced, could also face decades behind bars.
Menendez, who twice voted to impeach President Trump during his first term, has reportedly been angling for a pardon from the commander in chief as he prepares to head to prison.
Menendez has repeatedly sworn his innocence but resigned from the Senate under pressure last August after being convicted.
