Menendez legal team may argue wife withheld information in bribery case

Attorneys for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) may argue that his wife, Nadine Menendez, withheld information connected to the allegations they face in federal court, according to newly unsealed court documents.

The court documents were unsealed to some media outlets after a coalition of news organizations filed a motion asking Judge Sidney H. Stein to do so. The documents revealed previously redacted statements included in the senator’s request to sever his case from his wife’s, multiple media outlets reported.

“While these explanations, 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 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,” the lawyers wrote, according to The Associated Press.

Menendez’s lawyers said in the motion they planned to argue their client “lacked the requisite knowledge of much of the conduct and statements of his wife, Nadine, and thus lacks scienter and did not agree to join any of the charged conspiracies.”

Lawyers for Nadine Menendez declined to comment when reached by The Hill.

A federal judge allowed Menendez’s trial to proceed without his wife in an order issued last week. The New Jersey senator’s trial will begin as scheduled May 6, while his wife’s will start in the summer, after her attorneys asked to delay her trial due to a “serious medical condition.”

The couple was first charged in September on allegations they accepted more than $600,000 in bribes from a group of New Jersey businessmen on behalf of interests in Egypt. They have since been charged with more counts, including conspiring to cover up alleged bribery schemes with three New Jersey businessmen.

The senator faces 16 charges, while Nadine Menendez faces 15. They have pleaded not guilty to all counts.

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