Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine are asking a federal judge to give them separate trials for the corruption charges they face in New York their attorneys argue the couple would be forced to testify against each other under a joint trial Menendez and his wife were each charged last fall with aiding three New Jersey businessmen in exchange for cash gold bars and a luxury car Senator Menendez is also accused of acting as a foreign agent while serving as the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee all have pleaded not guilty to the charges but how will this request for separate trials affect the case I'm joined by Chris Gramiccioni he's the former assistant us attorney for New Jersey to explain Chris Gramiccioni always good to have you on the show so when looking at this request is it unusual for a husband and wife uh to put it out on these grounds that they may possibly uh be sharing confidential information I don't think it's unusual I've seen it on repeated occasions what is unusual is the possibility I think of the Court actually granting it because the allegations are that Senator and Mrs Menendez are involved in a criminal conspiracy that they mutually gain from and the federal system really favors joint trials for people indicted together to promote efficiency and to serve the interests of Justice by preventing inconsistent verdicts and two separate trials isn't there a risk though Chris that one may end up testifying against the other which I mean and really goes against their constitutional rights since they are married there is a risk to that regard and that's what the defense raised in their motion and they found some favorable uh case law out of the third circuit um the case is charged out of the second circuit um so it is possible I mean we'll see what a court does they have to respond uh 14 days from when they filed but there there there's a crime fraud exception to anybody who's claiming um that marital Communications privilege the adverse testimonial privilege applies and the theory behind that is if uh if two people are involved that are married are involved in in some kind of criminal conspiracy or activity uh that falls outside of the privacy of marriage and therefore the privilege would not apply so I anticipate that's what the government's response will be and I also note that the period of the conspiracy charg in this preceding indictment is January 2018 through June of 2022 so this only applies to the communications from when they were married forward which I think is October 2020 it'll be interesting to see how the court resolved it yeah I mean that's a good point in thinking about how likely it is um and whether or not prosecutors uh would be amenable to essentially trying a case twice because that's what would happen here if these end up being split no it would be and then and and again the federal system historically favors avoiding that very problem that very because for inefficiency reasons for inconvenience of multiple trials and expenses um it's also important to note I think here what you see in the moving papers is they say words the effect of that Senator Mendez May testify and in the case law that I've read speculation to make a motion like this is is often times not enough it has to be demonstrated that there's actual Prejudice that's going to outweigh the expense and inconvenience of separate trials and they have to make a showing on how it's anticipated defense would be specifically prejudiced it has to be clear and substantial resulting in a manifestly unfair trial so I didn't see that in the moving papers I suspect you might see that that point be um exploited and raised in the government's response yeah certainly we will be raised um I'd have to agree with you there okay the Senator's lawyers they're also asking for this um case or trial if it goes to trial to be moved to New Jersey um what's the likelihood there um and what are the potential uh implications for prosecutors if it comes to the Jersey side um well it's it's generally difficult to transfer venue again unless you can show some kind of prejudice similar to what we're talking about now which I I I don't you know to me personally doesn't make a lot of sense because the jurisdictions are so close together they share the same media markets so I don't know what the change in venue would gain them it's be a different story if they were trying to transfer you know somewhere down in the southwest but again we're talking about a a federal Senator here who has some name recognition you know through his role and unfortunately through past charges that were you know highly highly covered in in the media in the past so I uh my I'd anticipate that'd be an uphill battle for the defense.

Chris Gramiccioni is a former assistant us attorney for New Jersey Chris thank you so much of course good to see you again take care