Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife was sentenced Thursday to 4½ years in prison for selling the powerful New Jersey politician’s influence in exchange for bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car.

Nadine Menendez, 58, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein after she was convicted in April of colluding from 2018 to 2023 with her husband, the former Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a variety of corrupt schemes, some involving assisting the Egyptian government.

The judge said he granted leniency in part because of the trial she endured, her difficult childhood in Lebanon, her abusive romantic partners, her health conditions and her age.

Prosecutors had asked that she serve at least seven years in prison, while the Probation Department

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