NEWARK – Sen. Bob Menendez’s last chance to convince a jury he is not guilty on corruption charges is this morning, as his attorney Abbe Lowell delivers a closing argument, two months to the day after the trial in federal court began.

Lowell began speaking to jurors around 10:10 a.m., referencing his opening statement where Lowell highlighted the word which he said destroyed the government’s case against the senator: friendship.

“Gifts designed to cultivate friendship are not bribes,” Lowell said.

The jury instructions, Lowell said, conveyed three additional, vital words: “’in exchange for’, also called ‘quid pro quo.’” Jurors must find the gifts Menendez received were the sole reason he took official actions on Dominican port security, Medicare billing, and visa applications.

“As for friendship, what the judge instructed you destroyed every one of the charges,” Lowell said. “Every one.”

Lowell said the government of “invented” a witness in FBI Agent Alan Mohl, the case agent for the years-long investigation of the senator. Prosecutors put Mohl on the stand four times to read emails and recite evidence, but unlike other witnesses had no first-hand knowledge of events.

“Guess what?” Lowell said. “Agent Mohl wasn’t at any of the meetings either.”

Putting jurors in Menendez’s shoes with a scaled down version of the case, Lowell asked them to visualize their own friends.

“Do you have friends that you’ve had for 5 years?” Lowell asked. “How about 10? How about 20?”

Continuing the metaphor – though not assigning the jurors a hypothetical office, keeping them private citizens – Lowell asked if they would visit the friend’s Shore house, ride there in this friend’s new car, or allow their own “hermano” to pay a greens fee on the golf course. In parallel, if that friend had a dispute with the county over a permit or school enrollment, would the jurors do what they could to help?

“Would you need to be bribed by that friend to help if you could?” Lowell asked. “The answer is obvious…real friends help when they can and don’t need to be bribed.”

The prosecution delivered its closing argument on Thursday, followed by lawyers for Menendez’s co-defendant Dr. Salomon Melgen. Lowell’s remarks will be the last words the jurors hear from the defense about the case.

When Lowell is done with his summation, the prosecution gets a final rebuttal, expected to be delivered later today, before jurors begin deliberations.