Her trial had just resumed after being suspended for three days. And Nadine Menendez, charged by federal prosecutors with orchestrating a complex international bribery scheme, had something to say.

It involved a lapel pin.

“We have a client instruction,” her lawyer, Barry Coburn, told the judge about a legal argument that was being hashed out in private. “The client wishes it to be in open court.”

With that nudge, Ms. Menendez’s breast cancer diagnosis, which has hung over the case for months, once again took center stage.

“We obviously all feel for her situation,” a prosecutor, Daniel C. Richenthal, said. He was concerned, however, that the adornment — a pink breast cancer awareness pin — might be “distracting to the jury and may cause the jury to speculate as to why Ms. Menendez was absent and why she was crying.”

“Like any other political or policy symbol,” he said, “we would ask that Ms. Menendez remove the pin.”

The judge denied the request, the pin stayed on and the trial continued.

After three weeks of testimony, the government is nearing the end of its case against Ms. Menendez, who is accused of taking bribes and shuttling messages to her husband, Robert Menendez, a former U.S. senator convicted last summer of trading his political influence for cash, gold and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.