But their whirlwind romance has taken a sudden dark turn. Mr. Menendez, the 69-year-old Democratic chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, is under investigation by the Justice Department for the second time in less than a decade. And this time, his wife is also in prosecutors’ cross hairs. Unlike her husband, who took a seat on a New Jersey school board as a 20-year-old and rose to prominence in Hudson County’s famously sharp-elbowed political scrum, Ms. Menendez, 56, has lived a mainly private life. She is described by friends, acquaintances and two former lawyers in much the same way: social, smart and highly fashion-conscious.

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Persons: Menendez, Ms, Hudson County’s Organizations: Foreign Relations, Justice Department, U.S, New York University Locations: Manhattan, New Jersey, New, Bergen County, N.J