well it's the beginning of the end in the 8-week long trial of us Senator Bob Menendez earlier today the defense for codefendant will Hana wrapped up their case bringing forward the last witness in this trial an Egyptian man with ties to the Halal Meat Company that's at the heart of the case and then came the closing arguments the prosecution starting their summation this afternoon but they've prepared five hours worth of closing arguments that'll continue into Tuesday senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan has one once again been in the courthouse all day and is here to explain what's already been presented in the prosecution's closing statements plus what more we can expect tomorrow Brenda good to see you what did you hear today hey Joanna well the prosecution opened fire with both barrels today very forceful summation they got partway through it assistant us attorney Paul Monon reminding the jury about all of that gold bars and cash that FBI agent seized at the Menendez home saying quote Menendez sold the power of his office you saw again and again a clear pattern of corruption now the defense has said that the Senator's wife Nate Dean orchestrated all of this but the prosecution argued and again I'll quote you don't get to be the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by being clueless mon Leoni argued quote Menendez was in charge his wife Nate Dean was his goet always keeping him informed now he started going through each count citing evidence he went count by count and said you know this is a lot of evidence it's a lot of counts but it was a year-long scheme Joanna okay so Brenda how long could all of these closing arguments in total take an incredibly long time the prosecution estimated as you said the summation would take 5 hours they'll finish up tomorrow morning and then the defense could go on through Tuesday through Wednesday uh and they are remember two there are two other codefendants in this case not just Bob Menendez now the Senator's team is going to argue that there was no quidd proquo proved but the government today argued that just the promise to act with corrupt intent is enough and they pointed to their timeline of evidence saying quote when Menendez knew there was money on the line he sprang into action Joanna we're going to hear more of that tomorrow for sure yeah I'm sure we are and we know the jury's been taking all of this in when do they kind of take over this case what happens with them well after summations the judge is going to charge the jury he's got a 100 pages to go through to give them instructions about what to um to consider and what to ignore judge Sydney Stein is going to do that very carefully he estimated that the deliberations should take as he put it a couple of days and if they begin deliberations Thursday morning we might get a verdict on Friday now there are 18 counts to consider 16 for Menendez six for will Hana six for Fred Davies so Brenda one interesting point here that a lot of people may not realize uh going back to those closing arguments the prosecution does get another stab at this after the defense goes explain that that's because the prosecution carries the burden of proof and so the way this is legally set up by law after the defense finishes presenting its hours of testimony the prosecution does get a chance to give a rebuttal to the jury that's expected though to last only about a half an hour Joanna uh as this all plays out interesting to remember that uh the senator is still potentially running for re-election he has filed to run as an independent uh we'll see what happens depending on the outcome of this jury verdict which we think could possibly be this week senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan thank you thank you [Music]