Sen. Bob Menendez and wife seek separate trials on bribery charges

Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife are seeking separate trials on bribery charges they each face in a New York court.

The New Jersey Democrat and his wife, Nadine, were each charged in the fall with aiding three New Jersey businessmen in return for cash, gold bars and a luxury car.

The couple and the businessmen, who also face charges, have all pleaded not guilty.

Nadine Menendez’s lawyers asked in papers filed late Monday for the severance on the grounds that the senator may want to testify at a trial scheduled to start in May and may divulge marital communications that she plans to keep secret.

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Lawyers for Bob Menendez wrote that each spouse should face separate trials so that the senator does not provide information about marital communications during cross-examination that might be damaging to his wife’s defense.

They asked the trial judge not to force “him to choose between two fundamental rights: his right to testify in his own defense and his right not to testify against his spouse.”

The requests