US senator, wife to face separate trials

NEW YORK — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife will be tried separately on claims that they participated in a bribery scheme, a federal judge ruled Thursday after Nadine Menendez’s lawyers argued that she requires treatment for a serious medical condition.

The New Jersey Democrat’s trial will remain scheduled for May 6 in Manhattan federal court, while Nadine Menendez’s trial was tentatively pushed back to July 8.

“This trial is going forward without Mrs. Menendez” in order to “give some stability and certainty to all parties,” Judge Sidney Stein said. “The government is going to have to try this case two times.”

A lawyer for the senator urged the judge not to hold up his client’s day in court over the issue, saying the claims are a “specter” hanging over the the former chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that “effectively removes his ability to run” for reelection this year.

“We are asserting our speedy trial rights,” Adam Fee said. Prosecutors, meanwhile, contended that the entire trial should just be delayed, arguing in a letter to the judge that severing Nadine Menendez’s trial from her husband’s would result in “serious inefficiencies and unfairness” that would require dozens of witnesses to be recalled.

Stein also Thursday denied motions to dismiss the case outright and transfer the trial to New Jersey.