NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Bob Menendez could seek relief in his May bribery trial by blaming his wife and saying she kept him in the dark about anything that could be illegal about her dealings with New York businessmen Jersey, according to court documents released Tuesday.
Several verdicts in a lawsuit filed in January by attorneys for the Democrat were overturned in Manhattan federal court after some news organizations insisted that disclosure was required. Menendez’s attorneys had redacted the documents, claiming the verdicts revealed a trial strategy that could influence the jury pool.
According to the passages released, Menendez plans to testify about what he says are exculpatory communications with his wife Nadine if he decides to take the witness stand in his defense.
“While these statements, and the marital communications on which they rely, will tend to exonerate Senator Menendez by demonstrating the absence of any improper intent on Senator Menendez’s part, they may incriminate Nadine by demonstrating the ways in which she withheld information from Senator Menendez or otherwise led him to believe that nothing illegal was happening,” the lawyers wrote.
While seeking to break up the trials against the senator and his wife, the attorneys said they planned to argue at trial that Senator Menendez did not have the knowledge necessary to commit a crime and that he did not agreed with the conspiracies laid out in the indictment against him. .
With such a trial strategy, the lawyers said they would essentially have to argue that crimes involved the actions of others, including his wife, and not the senator. However, they added that they were not aware of any unlawful behavior.
Although the request to break up the trials was initially denied, Judge Sidney H. Stein has since ruled that they can take place separately after it was revealed that Nadine Menendez will require surgery in the next six weeks. Her trial has now been postponed until at least July.
The Menendezes and two businessmen have pleaded not guilty to charges that they participated in a bribery scheme in which prosecutors say cash and gold bars were given to the couple in exchange for the senator providing political favors. Bob Menendez was chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee until he resigned from his position in September over the allegations.
A third businessman, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty to bribery charges and agreed to testify against the others at trial. Uribe said he conspired with Nadine Menendez and others to give her a Mercedes-Benz in exchange for access to her husband’s power and influence.
According to the indictment, the Menendezes accepted bribes to help a businessman secure a lucrative meat certification deal with Egypt and another associate secure a deal with a Qatari investment fund.
The redacted passages in the March filing were released after media organizations led by NBCUniversal Media, including The Associated Press, argued that the public’s right to access the documents overrode any concerns raised by Menendez’s lawyers.
