and attorneys delivered closing arguments today in the federal bribery trial of Naen Mendez the wife of convicted former US Senator Bob Mendez is accused of taking part in a year'slong scheme accepting cash and lavish gifts in exchange for political favors she's pleaded not guilty earlier this year Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in the plot naen's trial was previously postponed while she underwent treatment for breast cancer prosecutors today spent hours reviewing the case alleging she helped put her husband's power up for sale senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan is outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan with the latest hey Bren so what can you tell us about today hey Bri well it was a marathon session today naen Mendez faces 15 counts and the prosecution went through every single one of them in its closing arguments today to try to convince the jury to connect the dots that Naen Mendez essentially put up her husband's power and political influence for sale uh this is what the prosecution told the jury that she was his gobetween uh demanding payments and collecting payments and that quote when there's money on the table the defandent would spring into action now the former senator was found guilty of corruption and bribery and his defense attorneys during his trial would argue that Naen kept him in the dark but today the prosecution told jurors no he was in the loop and that the two of them worked together every step of the way collecting gold cash and a Mercedes Benz in exchange for his acting as a foreign agent for Egypt and for trying to influence the progress of criminal trials in New Jersey so what did the defense have to say what was their argument bri the defense argued that there's quote a complete failure of proof and they pointed to the lack of a quid proquo and the lack of an official act as it's defined legally they said also that the government's star witness Jose Uribe is uh an an uncredible a noncredible witness that he is a convicted felon that he presented what they called uncorroborated testimony about these meetings that he had with Mendez they also said and this was interesting that uh there's no proof of an official act perhaps Senator Menendez acted as he did to try to appease the woman he loves interesting which is something that we've heard before um what was the mood like in the courtroom obviously Naen's medical issues have been hanging over this trial yeah and as a matter of fact the defendant was sitting at the table sometimes she would she would hold on to her side and you could tell that she was uncomfortable brie um the prosecution presented such a barrage of of information so quickly i think that the jurors at some at some point felt overwhelmed um couple of eyes would be glazing over the former senator's sister uh was sitting there and she would laugh sometimes and shake her head at the prosecution's arguments and uh the judge uh coming up now needs to instruct this jury we probably won't get to the judge's charges until perhaps sometimes to tomorrow then the jurors would get this case this trial was expected to go into miday we may be getting a verdict very soon bri all right Brenda Flanigan for us outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan where this case of course um has been going on for several weeks all stemming from Senator Bob Mendez brenda thanks so much thank you [Music]