Pennsylvania’s senior Senator Bob Casey today took a break from Washington to testify in the case against Representative Chaka Fattah.

Casey offered a brief account of how Fattah tried to pressure him to get Pres. Obama to nominate Herbert Vederman, a Fattah loyalist and lobbyist, for an ambassadorship.

Vederman has been indicted for bribing Fattah. Vederman’s and Fattah’s teams both say that the two men were and are just very good friends. They do not deny that Vederman gave Fattah money, rather they argue the money was not a bribe. It was just one friend helping out another.

The alleged bribe totals $18,000.

Casey said that while Fattah repeatedly try to get him to support Vederman for an ambassadorship, he maintains that he knew nothing about the bribe. Having served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Casey said he got numerous requests from multiple people pushing others for posts.

When Vederman and Fattah got nowhere with Sen. Casey, they went elsewhere to make their case. Kristen Sheehy, a former White House scheduler, has testified that Fattah tried numerous times to get a meeting with top Obama officials to get Vederman a government job.

The trial against Fattah is expected to resume on Tuesday.