NEW JERSEY GLOBE
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez may testify at his federal corruption trial, and if he does, he might blame his wife for becoming involved in a criminal conspiracy and then keep details of alleged bribes from him, court papers unsealed today show.
The explosive new documents, which were unsealed by a federal judge at the request of a thirteen-member media coalition that included the New Jersey Globe, suggest that Menendez would use marital communications “will tend to exonerate” him.
“By demonstrating the absence of any improper intent on Senator Menendez’s part, they may inculpate Nadine by demonstrating the ways in which she withheld information from Senator Menendez or otherwise led him to believe that nothing unlawful was taking place,” Menendez’s lawyers said in a brief filed with the court.
Nadine Menendez, the senator’s wife and co-defendant, will face a separate trial this summer. U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein pushed her trial to the summer as a result of a serious health issue, but refused to delay the senator’s trial, which is due to start on May 6.
Menendez had maintained that a joint trial could force him to choose between his right to testify in his own defense, and his right not to testify against his spouse.
