A juror considering whether to convict one of New York’s most powerful politicians of corruption on Monday asked to be removed from the jury, the second such request made to the judge in the high-profile trial over the past week.
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Last week, a juror asked the judge to be excused from the panel, saying she felt “pressured… stressed out” and that her opinion of the case differed from that of the other jurors.
Federal prosecutor Howard Master said in court that Silver used his office to “dispense benefits to people who were paying him in quid pro quo relationship” and that his model of government “was by Sheldon Silver for Sheldon Silver”.
Lawyers for the 71-year-old Democrat had argued that he committed no crime.
Silver, who maintains he did nothing wrong and will be vindicated at trial, stepped down from his post after his January arrest, but he retains his Assembly seat.
Silver was charged with bribe-taking – under federal law, defrauding citizens by not providing honest services – as well as extortion and money laundering.
He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.
The three-week trial wrapped up with Silver’s defense team calling no witnesses and Silver himself refusing to take the stand. The evidence, he added, “shows that Sheldon Silver was a master of every form of deception – lying, keeping secrets, even splitting hairs”.
At the center of the trial was the question of how business and politics intermingle in Albany.
Prosecutors said Silver delivered tax-abatement and rent-control legislation that favored developers while big developers hired a small law firm that secretly sent $700,000 in fees to the ex-speaker.
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He added: “A lesser person would have folded, but Sheldon Silver is a fighter. He did not sell his office”.
