When indicted senator Bob Menendez first began dating his current wife she vanished for a week — and was declared a missing person by cops because her other lover feared for her safety.
Nadine Arslanian left the lights on and TVs blaring at her Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home without even her children knowing where she was, The Post has learned.
And she left a “weird” typewritten note on the door for the man she was casually dating, that lover told The Post.
She then secretly flew to for a week-long assignation with Menendez, the New Jersey Democratic senator, to the Dominican Republic in spring of 2018.
Arslanian, 57, and Menendez, 70, married in 2020 and are now indicted on charges of selling his office to New Jersey businessmen for cash, gold bars and a car, and conspiring to act as secret agents of the Egyptian and Qatari governments.
Both of them strongly deny the accusations. Menendez will go on trial at federal court in Manhattan on May 13 and Arslanian will have a separate trial in July.
In the spring of 2018, Arslanian was newly involved with the senator and still in an on-again, off-again relationship with lawyer Douglas Anton.
Anton told The Post that she had dropped by his Hackensack, NJ, law office while he was assembling furniture one Thursday and the two had agreed to meet later that evening at her Englewood Cliffs home.
“I texted her, but instead of blue, the text went green,” said Anton, a former attorney for disgraced musician R. Kelly, adding that he grew increasingly alarmed when he arrived at her home and saw a note affixed to her front door.
“My love, I’m going away to see my girlfriend last minute as I need some time to de-stress. Be back Monday. Love you,” the note said. The note was typed, which Anton said he found “weird.”
Anton said he wasn’t too upset because he was also dating someone else at the time, “and the idea of a Nadine-free weekend was rather appealing.”
But when she didn’t return on Monday he began to worry, he told The Post, adding that he called her sister, her adult children and friends “who also had no idea where she was, that she left, and were very concerned.” Her sister insisted he call police, Anton said.
“It wasn’t like her to do this, and days went by, so I went to the cops,” he said.
“I did a missing persons report, and they had to come to the house to check to make sure that someone didn’t kill her and put her in a closet.”
Police found the lights on as well as televisions blaring in the living room and a bedroom, according to northJersey.com, citing records obtained from theEnglewood Cliffs Police Department.
Arslanian was found several days later, Anton said.
“On the flight back from the DR, she could not get on the plane and had to call for a government check,” Anton told The Post.
“That’s when he [Menendez] first found out we were still ‘seeing’ each other on and off during the week when he was in DC. She later said he freaked out and was p–sed.”
The couple were in Punta Cana, a seaside town in the Dominican Republic. The town is a short drive to Casa de Campo, an exclusive resort where Menendez had been a frequent guest of his former benefactor, Salomon Melgen.
Menendez was indicted for corruption alongside the Palm Beach eye doctor in 2015. His trial resulted in a hung jury, and he and Melgen were acquitted of some of the bribery charges.
When Arslanian was on the plane she called police to say she was safe and asked them to send Anton a message to stay away from her, according to northjersey.com.
She returned to the US on a Thursday, a week after she had first “disappeared,” said Anton.
“She finally landed and blew up my phone, came right to my house to explain, crying and to apologize,” Anton said.
“I asked her ‘why did you do that?'” said Anton. “It was more about Bob wanting to be incognito.”
When police returned to Arslanian’s home for a follow-up visit, they found her there along with Wael Hana, an Egyptian-American businessman, who is now one of her two co-defendants, northjersey.com reported.
He and the other co-accused, Fred Daibes, have also pleaded not guilty. A third man, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty and is co-operating with prosecutors.
Arslanian and Menendez’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.