Ms. Menendez, the wife of New Jersey’s former senator, is scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 21, eight days before her husband is expected to be sentenced for taking bribes.
Nadine Menendez arrived at federal court in Manhattan on Monday without her husband, New Jersey’s disgraced former U.S. senator, her right arm in a sling and her face largely covered by a pink surgical mask.
But the judge overseeing her case, Sidney H. Stein, was apparently unpersuaded by her lawyer’s argument that Ms. Menendez, 57, would be unable to effectively participate in her own criminal defense while she is treated for breast cancer.
Judge Stein, of Federal District Court, said her trial would start, as planned, on Jan. 21 — eight days before her husband, Robert Menendez, and two of her onetime close friends are expected to be sentenced for participating in a vast international bribery scheme.
Ms. Menendez, according to an indictment and evidence introduced during her husband’s trial, was often the go-between for the men, shuttling messages and accepting bribes meant for the senator.
Ms. Menendez’s diagnosis with what her lawyers at the time described as a “serious medical condition” was first revealed in April, weeks before she was expected to stand trial alongside her husband and two other men, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana.
Judge Stein granted her springtime request for a delayed trial; Mr. Menendez, 70, later said that his wife would undergo a mastectomy as she was treated for what he described as an aggressive form of breast cancer.
