In early 2019, Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his new girlfriend, Nadine Arslanian, were thriving.
He had avoided a federal bribery conviction after his trial ended with a hung jury, and the couple had begun traveling the world.
Mr. Menendez proposed to Ms. Arslanian that October in India with a grand gesture, singing “Never Enough” from “The Greatest Showman” outside the Taj Mahal. They married a year later and were showered with gifts from a dozen influential friends.
The senator moved into his wife’s modest split-level house in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and they have since attended state dinners at the White House, dining with the president of France and the prime minister of India.
Then their life took a dark turn.
Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, is again on trial, charged with taking part in an elaborate, yearslong bribery scheme. This time there is a volatile new element: charges against his wife.
The case, prosecutors have indicated, is as much about Ms. Menendez as it is about her husband. They have depicted the couple as collaborators who took bribes in exchange for the senator’s willingness to steer weapons and government aid to Egypt, prop up a friend’s halal meat monopoly and meddle in criminal investigations involving allies.
Together, prosecutors contend, Mr. Menendez and his wife were entangled in corrupt schemes that began even before their marriage. The bribes, which included cash and gold bars, helped Mr. and Ms. Menendez live above their lawful means, prosecutors say.
Ms. Menendez, 57, has pleaded not guilty, as has her husband. Her trial was delayed until summer after her lawyers notified the court that she was contending with a serious illness.
Ms. Menendez did not respond to requests for comment. But court records and interviews with her former lawyers, acquaintances and longtime friends show that the years after her 2005 divorce from her previous husband were a time of legal tumult and financial uncertainty.
She relied mainly on alimony and child support, and at one point picked up part-time work as a hostess at a New Jersey restaurant, said Douglas Anton, a lawyer who represented Ms. Menendez in several legal matters.
Mr. Anton, who dated Ms. Menendez before her relationship with Mr. Menendez began, said he had been struck by her sharp intelligence and felt frustrated that she had not pursued a career.
“Just a smart woman,” Mr. Anton said. “Her talents were being wasted.”
