The wife of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez on Monday sought to sever the government’s corruption case against her from that of her husband, according to a court document.
Nadine Menendez’s lawyers argued that a joint trial will prejudice her right to defend herself in a fair trial. They added that a joint trial would force the married defendants to choose between defending themselves or implicating one another, “as exercising their right to testify in their own defense may necessitate waiving their privilege against providing testimony adverse to their spouse.”
“Ms. Menendez’s interests in both maintaining the confidentiality of her privileged marital communications and exercising her spousal testimonial privilege without sacrificing her ability to testify in her own defense collectively support a finding of a ‘serious risk’ that a joint trial will compromise her ‘specific trial rights,’” the lawyers said….
