Perhaps pretending Silver-who for two decades was one of the most powerful men in the state-simply never existed is easier than being reminded that New York’s government is hopelessly corrupt and criminal, that there is either something in the water or something in the system that invites greed and misconduct. The charges included honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering.
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A jury convicted the 71-year-old Manhattan Democrat on Monday on charges that he traded favors for $4 million in kickbacks from a cancer researcher and real estate developers.
“During this process, year after year, he was able to fend off the most liberal and fanatic assembly members and their bills which would have socialized New York City rent laws and development”. His office told the site that he believes the bill has enough votes to pass within the first couple of months of the session. Ethical boundaries may be blurry at the state Capitol, but Ian Vandewalker, a counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice, said the jury in Silver’s trial rejected his “business as usual” defense.
“There is not a culture of corruption in Albany”.
Silver served for 20 years as Speaker, and many say he ruled the chamber with an iron fist, rewarding those who agreed with him, and punishing those who did not. The New York Times dubbed Silver the “king of earmarks” because he used them as a way of exercising power over members of his political caucus.
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s guilty verdict on Monday generated reaction from several local state legislators. Silver’s lawyers have said they plan to appeal.
Stec said the state legislature has had numerous chances to address the issue, but both houses have dropped the ball. The U.S. attorney claimed during the Silver trial that the firm paid the former speaker some $3.3 million for the referral of mesothelioma patients-a good deal judging by the size of the firm’s take in asbestos court.
“I think it’s a loud, clear message that the Legislature should hear: If you break the law, you will get caught, and you will get convicted”, Cuomo said Tuesday.
If the answer depended on our current governor to sweep out the muck, the answer would clearly be no. You had to smirk at Andrew Cuomo’s statement in the moments after the Silver verdict, in which he vowed “zero tolerance” for public corruption in one of the nation’s most corrupt statehouses.
“There are a lot of people who don’t want full-time legislators, and they don’t want full-time politicians”.
Voter backlash to paying public pensions to convicted lawmakers has prompted renewed calls for reform.
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“It would surprise me”, he said, “if the prosecutors weren’t very careful to make that very hard to develop”.
