Sen. Robert Menendez arrives to court in September for his federal corruption trial in Newark Former senate majority leader Harry M. Reid attended a key meeting at issue in the case, but prosecutors have decided not to call him as a witness against Menendez. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Prosecutors in the bribery trial of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) don't plan to call former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as a witness in their case, despite his presence at a key meeting in the corruption case, according to people familiar with the matter.

The decision not to call Reid as a witness reflects the likely double-edged nature of his testimony. Though Reid, a Nevada Democrat, was a participant in a meeting in which Menendez pressured federal health officials to be more considerate of a longtime friend and major donor, Reid has also publicly praised Menendez, even after being drawn into the investigation.

It's unclear if Menendez's legal team might call him as a defense witness.

By not calling Reid, prosecutors apparently hope that jurors will be convinced by the accounts of others who were at the meeting, including former staffers and former health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who testified Tuesday.

Menendez is on trial in federal court in Newark, N.J., where prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case in the next week or two.

Reid retired in January, ending a 34-year career in Congress during which he relished a reputation as a highly unpredictable speaker. Even his closest advisers acknowledged that sometimes when he went speak on the Senate floor, or before the press, they were never certain what he would say – a penchant that served him well on Capitol Hill but one that makes any appearance on the witness stand a high-risk endeavor.

Menendez, a powerful Democratic senator who once chaired the Foreign Relations Committee, is accused of using his office to do corrupt favors for a Florida eye doctor, Salomon Melgen. Prosecutors say that Melgen gave the senator private jet flights, a luxury hotel stay, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, and in return the senator helped the doctor lobby the government on business and personal issues.

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One of those efforts involved an $8.9 million dispute over how Melgen billed Medicare for applications of an eye drug. Sebelius testified that at an August 2012 meeting with Menendez and Reid in the then-majority leader's office, Menendez tried to convince her to change the billing policy that could cost Melgen millions of dollars.

"I don't know exactly what [Menendez] wanted, just that he wanted me to do something," Sebelius, a Kansas Democrat who led HHS from 2009 to 2014, testified. "My definite impression was that he was very concerned that the policy was inconsistent and unfair and something should be done."

Menendez's lawyers have argued that he voiced concerns about a national policy issue - an appropriate action for someone with congressional oversight duties, and that he didn't even bring up Melgen's name during the meeting.

The meeting in Reid's office is a central part of the government's case against Menendez.

"It was unusual for Senator Reid to ask me to come to a meeting involving another member of Congress," Sebelius said, adding it was the only time she could recall a member of Congress asking her to discuss a specific Medicare or Medicaid billing policy.

By the time they met in Reid's office, Menendez had already tried and failed to get then-Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a committee chairman, to help with the issue. Prosecutors did call Harkin to testify against Menendez, but his account was a mixed bag – he called his meeting with Menendez a "courtesy'' often extended to fellow lawmakers.

Calling Reid as a witness against Menendez could have posed similar challenges for prosecutors. Back in 2015, after Reid was interviewed by the FBI but before Menendez was indicted, Reid publicly praised the senator, saying Menendez "has done a stellar job as chair of the [Foreign Relations] committee, and as far as I am concerned, he's been an outstanding senator.''

Paul Kane contributed to this report. Maimon reported from Newark.