The jury in Senator Bob Menendez is federal corruption trial is getting a deeper glimpse into the relationship between the embattled Democrat and the Egyptian officials from whom he's accused of taking bribes.

According to NJ Monitor, Day 14 of the trial included witness testimony from another FBI agent who spent the morning reading aloud texts between the senator and his wife, Nadine.

Most of the messages had to do with the Mercedes Benz the couple allegedly received as a bribe from Hosni Uribe.

He's one of the businessmen indicted in the case who pleaded guilty.

Part of the prosecution's effort is to make clear not only did the couple have a strong relationship with Uribe, the senator was also aware of the financial trouble his wife was having.

The prosecution also released a trove of new evidence, photos and video depicting a dinner between the Menendez's and Egyptian government leaders.

But doesn't prove a quid pro quo.

We turn to attorney and former federal prosecutor Brian Whistler.

Brian, it's good, as always, to get your insight on this case.

So a couple of pieces of, say, new evidence being brought to jurors awareness.

Number one, it's very evident that the FBI had been surveilling the Menendez's for years, almost immediately after his previous corruption trial ended.

What did you note about what prosecutors presented in terms of a dinner that was held between the Menendez's and Egyptian officials and also text correspondence between Bob and Nadine showing that they maybe did not lead the separate lives?

The defense attorneys want the jury to believe.

Yeah, no, you're quite right.

I mean, the evidence is streaming in now in the government's case in chief to include this dinner that occurred at a high end restaurant in D.C..

There were Egyptian officials as well as the codefendant in attendance with the senator and his wife.

I think a lot of this is for optical effect, Right.

Defense, of course, said no big takeaways from that.

It was a normal course meal.

It's a place where the senator ate a lot frequently and they weren't talking and they weren't huddling and talking in hushed tones to try to avoid anything.

So that's you know, that remains to be seen how significant of a factor that is and the evidence the other.

Yeah the Mercedes Benz was was finally introduced.

We've been talking about it now feels like for months and the jury finally got their first entree into this about this Mercedes Benz that was given to Nadine Menendez, allegedly.

How damning is that evidence showing correspondence between the husband and wife when the defense says he really didn't know about her money problems?

Much more significant piece of evidence.

Right.

And I think the prosecution scored a pretty significant victory when the judge admitted what's reported to be thousands of email communications, including those around the Mercedes in the day in which she retrieved it, she said, I'm still here, the garage picking up the vehicle.

And and that's a centerpiece of of the evidence for them.

And it does bolster the prosecution's perception that these two individuals were in regular contact.

And it diminishes the defense that they were leading separate lives for sure.

Hey, Brian, let me ask you, though, because perhaps a win for the defense when it comes to this safety deposit box that was talked about in court just recently, just within the last day, no trace of Bob Menendez on that safety deposit box and the roughly $80,000 worth of cash in it.

Right.

And I mean, the defense certainly highlighted that point, right, that he had no other access, no record of him accessing it, no other evidence associating him with the box that that his wife and her father had opened quite a number of years ago.

I think the only real significant evidence that I recall is that there was some forensic testing that was done on the ten envelopes of cash in that box.

And the FBI forensic analysis revealed that two of those envelopes contain DNA of a of the codefendant, Mr. DAVIES.

But other than that, no trace of evidence directly tying the senator to that box.

Attorney and former federal prosecutor Brian Whistler, thanks as always.

Great to see you.

Brian, thanks very much.