Sen. Bob Menendez’s attorney told the jury at the close of the trial that prosecutors had failed to prove a single charge.

Attorney Adam Fee told the jury in Manhattan federal court that there were too many gaps in the evidence that prosecutors wanted jurors to fill in for themselves to conclude that crimes were committed or that Menendez accepted bribes.

“The lack of evidence should be held against the prosecution,” he said. “There is no evidence that he said or suggested that he was doing anything in exchange for a bribe.”

He defended more than $100,000 in gold bullion and more than $480,000 in cash discovered in an Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home during a 2022 FBI raid, though he acknowledged the existence of the valuables: “It’s provocative. It’s atypical.”

“Prosecutors have come a long way from proving that any gold or cash was given to Senator Menendez as a bribe,” Fee said.

“This is a case of a lot of inference,” he said, suggesting there were large gaps in the evidence that were not supported by emails, text messages or other evidence.

After the jury was sent home Tuesday, Fee told Judge Sidney H. Stein that he was about halfway through a five-hour closing argument that will resume Wednesday morning. His closing argument will be followed by arguments from two other defense attorneys before prosecutors present a rebuttal. The jury is expected to hear the case Thursday.

Earlier Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni said in a closing statement that began Monday that the senator engaged in “extremely abnormal” behavior in response to bribes, including trying to interfere in criminal cases handled by top state and federal prosecutors in New Jersey.

Menendez, 70, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he accepted bribes, including gold and envelopes of cash, from 2018 to 2022 from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted his help in their business ventures.

His trial entered its ninth week on Monday.

Menendez is on trial with two of the businessmen, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. Hana, who prosecutors say hired Menendez to help him secure and protect a monopoly on certifying meat exported from the United States to Egypt, and Daibes, a powerful real estate developer, have also pleaded not guilty. A third businessman pleaded guilty and testified at trial.

Monteleoni rejected the defense’s attempts to suggest that Menendez was unaware of efforts to obtain money or favors from businessmen by his then-girlfriend, Nadine Arslanian, who became his wife in the fall of 2020. Fee argued that she went to great lengths to hide her financial problems, including her inability to make house payments, from Menendez.

To demonstrate his point that Menendez was responsible for the bribery schemes, the prosecutor cited testimony about a small bell the senator allegedly used to call his wife one day when he was out with one of the businessmen and wanted her to bring him some paper.

The bell “showed you that he was the one in charge,” Monteleoni said, “and not a puppet whose strings are pulled by someone he summons with a bell.”

Nadine Menendez, 57, is also charged in the case, but her trial has been postponed while she recovers from breast cancer surgery.

Menendez has resisted calls, even from some leading Democrats, to resign, although he was forced to give up his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after the accusations were uncovered last fall.

A few weeks ago, Menendez filed to run for re-election this year as an independent.