The wife of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez Nadine Arslanian hit and killed a pedestrian in a 2018 car crash, according to a police report.
That car crash, which took place prior to her marriage to the New Jersey Democrat, is alleged to be the inception of a bribe in the federal indictment against the couple.
According to The New York Times, Nadine Menendez struck 49-year-old Richard Koop with her Mercedes-Benz sedan in Bogota in December 2018, killing him.
Police questioned Nadine Menendez and concluded she was not at fault for the crash,and she was released without a summons and allowed to leave the scene of the crash, according to the police report. Nadine Menendez was never tested for drugs or alcohol.
The recently uncovered information about the 2018 car crash adds new context to the federal indictment released last month against Nadine Menendez, her husband and three others.
According to the indictment, Nadine Menendez was involved in a car accident around December 2018 that left her without a car.
The indictment goes on to allege that two of the co-defendants in the case “offered and then helped to buy” a new Mercedes-Benz convertible worth more than $60,000 for Nadine Menendez in exchange for Sen. Menendez’s interference in a New Jersey state criminal prosecution. According to the indictment, Sen. Menendez agreed to disrupt the criminal matters in New Jersey.
