Oh for sure, a Republican probably wouldn’t have even got investigated for the stuff Menendez did. His corrupt ass can go right to jail, but that ® immunity card is a way bigger problem for our country than anything he did.
I think there was a Law & Order episode where the defense essentially said they should be tried separately, but at the same time in different court rooms.
And the idea was that the defense made the facts show that the spouse did the crimes. They both got non-guilty verdicts because there was enough reasonable doubt.
I know L&O is fiction but I have to imagine someone has tried this and succeeded.
My university had a jury system for people who cheated on tests and someone almost pulled that same strategy off. One of the admins serves on both trials though and figured it out. They just got unlucky honestly, it was a 1/3rd chance they’d both get the same admin.
At the one I didn’t attend, the professor showed up and corroborated the student’s story. They didn’t happen at the same time, the guilty one was the one I attended and she went second.