NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez are urging a judge to be lenient at his sentencing later this month for his conviction on bribery charges, saying the ordeal has made him a “national punchline” despite a lifetime of good deeds that have saved lives.

Late Thursday, the lawyers wrote to the judge who will sentence him to say that the Democrat’s positive actions through an unusual life spent overcoming hardships should weigh in his favor. Sentencing is scheduled for July 29.

The 71-year-old Menendez was convicted in July of 16 corruption charges brought by prosecutors who asserted that he used his power in the Senate to do favors that benefited three New Jersey businessmen.

Two of the businessmen were convicted along with him while a third pleaded guilty to charges and testified at the trial.

His wife faces trial next month on many of the same charges after her case was delayed so she could be treated for breast cancer.

The lawyers told Judge Sidney H. Stein that Menendez has fallen on hard times since he was charged in the case in 2023, losing the Senate seat he held for 18 years, along with most of his “once broad circle of friends and political allies.”

“Unsurprisingly, Senator Menendez’s conviction has rendered him a national punchline and stripped him of every conceivable personal, professional, and financial benefit,” they wrote. “Bob is now 71, with his long-built reputation in tatters.

“He has suffered financial and professional ruin. And he now is helping his wife battle a life-threatening cancer diagnosis in the midst of her upcoming trial in this case. We respectfully submit that, notwithstanding his conviction, Bob is deserving of mercy because of the penalties already imposed, his age, and the lack of a compelling need to impose a custodial sentence,” the lawyers added.

They noted that the Probation Department calculated federal sentencing guidelines as calling for a sentence as high as 24 years to 30 years behind bars, although Probation recommended a dozen years in prison, which the Menendez lawyers characterized as “draconian.”

They said properly calculated federal guidelines would actually call for a roughly two-year prison term and even that would be too much punishment.

Federal prosecutors were scheduled to submit their own sentencing recommendations later this month.

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