Nadine Menendez’s Desperate Gambit: Trading Trauma Narrative for Freedom

But sentencing is different. It’s where federal judges have discretion, where human stories matter, where the difference between 12 months and 120 months can turn on how effectively lawyers can reframe their client’s narrative.

The Systemic Problem with Selective Justice

Here’s what bothers me about this entire spectacle: Nadine Menendez is receiving the kind of legal advocacy that most federal defendants can only dream about. Her team at Cozen O’Connor has crafted a mitigation package that would make any public defender weep with envy.

“She has been taken advantage of by powerful men her entire life,” attorney Sarah Krissoff declared Friday. It’s a compelling argument, but it raises uncomfortable questions about justice in America’s two-tiered legal system.

How many defendants in federal court have experienced trauma? How many grew up in war zones, faced abuse, or made poor decisions under the influence of powerful people? The difference is that most of them don’t have legal teams capable of transforming their pain into sophisticated legal arguments.