Sen. Bob Menendez’s wife is excused from court after cancer surgery

NEW YORK (AP) — The wife of Sen. Bob Menendez was excused Wednesday from appearing in court next week after her lawyer said she’s experiencing intense and chronic pain after surgery to treat cancer.

Nadine Menendez was supposed to be on trial with the Democrat for the past month, but her trial was delayed until at least July after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She was scheduled to attend a pretrial hearing next Wednesday in Manhattan federal court before her lawyer, Barry Coburn, asked that her appearance be waived after the recent “invasive cancer surgery.”

Coburn wrote that she has “medical equipment implanted in her body and is in intense, chronic pain.”

In an order late in the day, Judge Sidney H. Stein said she can skip the hearing.

Menendez, 70, and his wife, 57, have pleaded not guilty to aiding three New Jersey businessmen in return for bribes of gold bars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and a car.

Much of the evidence shown to jurors since the trial began four weeks ago has focused on Nadine Menendez’s communications with the businessmen and the senator through hundreds of emails, text messages and telephone calls.

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