Nadine Menendez, the wife of disgraced former U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez, was sentenced today to four and a half years in federal prison.

That's for her part in a sweeping bribery and corruption scandal that landed her husband an 11-year sentence earlier this summer, time he's currently serving.

Now according to reports from those inside the courtroom today, Nadine was sobbing before Judge Sidney Stein as he imposed the sentence, which also includes three years of supervised release.

Then in a statement to the judge, Nadine threw her husband under the bus, saying, among other things, quote, "I put my life in his hands and he strung me like a puppet."

Defense lawyers for Nadine Menendez argued she was an unknowing participant to the scheme in which she and Menendez obtained expensive gifts like cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes Benz from three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for official political acts by the former senator.

Judge Sidney Stein, though, made it clear today Nadine Menendez was not only a central the plan, but she knew what she was doing throughout.

[MUSIC PLAYING]