well it's day 25 in the Menendez trial and it finally looks like the prosecution is starting to wrap up their case today's testimony focused once again on those gold bars but this time on Senator Menendez reporting or rather lack of reporting in his financial disclosures about those gold bars on the stand to start the day was a senate Ethics Committee Member and Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has more on her testimony Brenda what can you tell us about this uh ethics experts uh reports on menendez's disclosures yeah Joanna today we uh the prosecution first of all is very close to resting its case and during the day we drilled down into Senator menendez's finances and we did that with testimony from the chief Council from the Senate Ethics Committee now he called her for advice he said listen I've got some gold bars and I'd like to know how to report them on my financial disclosure form he claimed that all of these gold bars belong to his wife naen and that they were gifts from uh her parents so he listed the bars on the form as belonging to his spouse and worth about $250,000 now the prosecution alleges that some of those Gold Bars were actually bribes that they were from codefendants in this trial Fred Davies and will Hana in return for the senator using his influence in the case but the senate senate Ethics Committee Joanna does not verify or audit anything on this disclosure form it actually trusts the Senators they check a little box saying that everything they've reported is true so Brenda what about that mercedesbenz did that show up anywhere on his reporting that $60,000 mercedesbenz it did not it was nowhere on the disclosure form now remember the prosecution star witness Jose urbe has testified that he was buying that Mercedes for nen andez as part of a quidd pro quo that it was in return for the Senator's help with a criminal case and after the FBI raided their home M naen Menendez wrote Ure rebe a check where she claimed that it was to repay him for a car loan now the government said that check was just an attempt to cover up a bribe but again the Senator's disclosure form didn't list the mercedesbenz as either a car loan or as a gift ATA so how did the defense handle all of this today what did you hear as part of their strategy the defense again Joanna they pointed at naen remember that they've alleged that she kept Senator Menendez quote in the dark well his attorney asked the Ethics Committee councel suppose the gift is known only to naen well obviously the senator cannot report on a disclosure form something that he allegedly knows nothing about Joe Atlanta that might be a big suppose given all that the prosecution has laid out uh about the texts between them is that a big suppose Brenda um well you have to you know prove that this is accepted as a bribe and right now the case that the prosecution has presented except for Jose Ube who was able to testify to a quid proquo has been all circumstantial evidence text messages voicemail email so they're hoping that the jury in their mind will connect the dots Joanna so do we know now when the defense will begin their case you said the prosecution is wrapping up right now they're listening to a cell uh phone tower expert who's triangulating calls if they can finish that and get through some legal housekeeping the defense May begin its case tomorrow all right it's been a busy week for you in New York we will check in again tomorrow thank you so much senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan thank you [Music]