well the prosecution in the trial against us Senator Bob Menendez wrapped up its closing arguments today bringing a close to their nearly two Monon presentation of evidence against New Jersey senior senator the US justice department trying to prove that Menendez engaged in a quidd proquo providing political favors for friends in exchange for gold bars and cash now the defense for Menendez and his two codefendants Fred Davies and will Hana took much less time to present their case insisting all along that the prosecution has failed to prove its case and that's the case the Menendez team made today as defense lawyers began their summation pointing the finger at menendez's wife naen senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan has more on how they've explained away all that the justice department has presented Brenda good to see you what did you hear from the defense attorneys today hey Joanna well menendez's defense attorney Adam feet told jurors quote the government has not proven a single count Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and he called the prosecution's case a cherry-picked story and said you're being asked to imagine criminal stuff to fill in the gaps in their evidence he pointed out the defense even uh the defense argued that even the government's evidence isn't always credible and that they had to backtrack on even the simplest facts like whether there was a blue blazer hanging in a closet Fe said said you need to question The credibility and the accuracy of what you're being asked to conclude Joanna well that might actually be one of the simplest facts right how do they explain or how do they address all the gold bars the cash found in the Senator's home well fee actually uh joked he with the pro he told that the prosecution presented Menendez as a Scrooge McDuck swimming in gold coins and that got a big laugh in the courtroom but then he added the prosecutions trying to overwhelm jurors he says or ask them who has that kind of cash and gold hanging around their house he said they want you to conclude that every dollar every piece of gold was a bribe and then he mentioned the Senator's wife and he said nine was supporting herself by selling personal family gold and jewelry but he said there's no evidence that the senator actually took bribe for doing something so Brenda we know that the prosecution had their shot uh to finish up their summation this morning were there any key takeaways from those closing arguments there was a dramatic presentation that the prosecution made essentially telling jurors why they must convict on all 18 counts and telling them how they could fill in the blanks to end up with the evidence to support a quidd proquo now prosecutor Paul Melone warned quote Menendez is smart Menendez is careful and he doesn't say the quiet part out loud and that he's quote not a puppet having his strings pulled by someone with that he summons with a bell referring again to wife naen now Point pointing to the gold bars that were allegedly given as gifts by codefendant Fred daies he said nobody gives $60,000 bars out of friendship then he said in closing it all boils down to a classic case of corruption on a massive scale about a politician who's putting his power up for sale and people who are willing to buy IT Joanna okay so Brenda what comes next in this case well after fee wraps up summations for Senator Menendez we're going to get closing Arguments for the other two defendants will hana's attorneys expect to take a couple of hours and then comes Fred Davies after that the prosecution because it carries that burden of of having to prove Beyond A Reasonable Doubt gets to do a rebuttal okay so not the last time we'll hear from the prosecution senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan you're out there and we know the heat today thank you great reporting as always thank you