after a week of delays the federal bribery trial of Naen Mendez resumed today with the prosecution's star witness Jose Urebe taking the stand urebe is one of three New Jersey businessmen originally indicted with Menendez and her husband former US Senator Bob Menendez prosecutors say the couple accepted bribes for political favors both pleaded not guilty but Bob Menendez was convicted on all counts and is scheduled to start an 11-year prison sentence in June now it's unclear exactly why the trial was delayed and whether Naen Mendez's recent treatment for breast cancer had anything to do with it senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan was inside the Manhattan federal courtroom today and joins us with the latest brenda good to see you so of course everyone wants to know what did Yurebe have to say well hey Bri you remember that the prosecution claims it was Nadine Mendez who did the dirty work in this bribery case and today it was the government's star key witness Jose Urebe who tried to help the jury connect those dots essentially you uh Urebe said yes he pleaded guilty in this case because he says he did bribe Bob Mendez he explained however he agreed with Naen Mendez that he would provide a MercedesBenz in order basically to buy her husband's influence he wanted the senator to flex his muscles to try and derail two investigations of fraud by the New Jersey Attorney General's office the first one involved a company that was run by his good friend but the second one the dots connected again possibly to his own company and Urebe was afraid for his extended family he was desperate he wanted to stop that case and he told the jury today quote I provided a car to Naen to protect my family and of course that infamous Mercedes we just saw a photo of that um who else was on the stand today Bren anyone to corroborate that that bribery scheme was in place well they called the former attorney general of New Jersey to the stand today Gerber Greywall because he testified that he was contacted twice by Senator Mendez and asked to come in for meetings now they did discuss the case uh discuss the situation once over the phone the other time Menend uh Greywall went to Mendez's office in Newark and he said that both times Menendez tried to talk about a specific case now general said he refused to discuss the case he says that's against his protocol standard operating procedure and he indicated that Mendez did not ask him to do anything specifically but that he made it very clear he did not like the way that the case was being handled and Menendez says as he and his assistant were leaving they got outside his assistant turned to him and said and I quote "Whoa that was gross."

Now again the defense on cross-examination asked "Did you ever discuss any of this with Naen Mendez?"

To which Gerbier Greywall replied "I did not Bri."

There you go yeah and of course I think you meant to say Greywall's assistant there not Menendez's assistant um what do we know Brent about why this has been uh delayed about Naen Mendez's state um and why we've had these fits and starts for the trial well remember the trial was originally delayed because Naen Menendez was being treated for breast cancer she had reconstructive surgery not long before this trial started now the trial was uh postponed a couple of days last week because according to her attorney Naim Mendez was in distress she was in pain she was crying at sitting there at the desk uh in the courtroom according to uh several observers now she was back in court today and according to uh you know observers she walked in she's wearing a pink uh breast cancer awareness pin and the prosecution asked Judge Stein if he could request that Mrs menendez refu uh re remove that pin saying essentially inferring that it might sway the jury it might uh draw some sympathy from the jury knowing what she's been going through uh the judge absolutely refused to do that and that was the end of that the uh testimony will continue tomorrow bri all right Brenda Flanigan for us in Manhattan great reporting as always um and just uh significant there to see her walk in today in certainly a much different state uh Brenda thanks so much thank you [Music]