A federal judge on Monday rejected former Sen. Robert Menendez’s bid to delay his sentencing for bribery, extortion and other crimes of corruption.

Menendez, 70, will be sentenced on Jan. 29 and faces up to a maximum of 222 years in prison for all the counts he was convicted of, though it is unlikely he would get the maximum.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein rejected Menendez’s request to have the sentencing postponed until his wife, Nadine Menendez, finishes her trial for similar charges. His lawyers argued that the jurors for his wife’s case could be tainted if they heard the sentencing outcome of his case during her trial.

Menendez said his family would suffer a “tremendous emotional toll” if he was sentenced during his wife’s trial, his lawyers wrote. “Put simply, the current timeline poses an unnecessary and overwhelming risk of poisoning the proceedings against Nadine.”

In a separate letter from the wife’s lawyer, attorney Barry Coburn wrote that if Menendez is “sentenced shortly before our client proceeds to trial, that likely would have a devastating impact on our client, which, I believe, would make it difficult if not impossible for her to concentrate on, and participate meaningfully in, her trial.”

The judge refused to delay Menendez’s sentencing but moved Nadine Menendez’s trial from January to February.

Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, was convicted in July on 16 counts, including bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent to Egypt, in a yearslong bribery scheme.

Prosecutors convinced a jury during the nine-week trial that Menendez abused his power as a senator and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. The evidence included stacks of gold bars, along with $480,000 in cash and a Mercedes-Benz convertible recovered in a raid at Menendez’s New Jersey home.

His wife has pleaded not guilty to similar charges. Her trial was originally postponed while she underwent treatment for breast cancer.

Her trial will now begin on Feb. 5.

Menendez resigned from the Senate in August after mounting calls for him to do so from his Senate colleagues, including Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.