Ex-NY Senate leader, son guilty of extortion charges

The second of the state legislature’s two former leaders has now been convicted on multiple corruption charges, after a jury lost no time in finding former Senate Leader Dean Skelos and son Adam guilty on all eight counts.

“The swift convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos beg an important question – how many prosecutions will it take before Albany gives the people of NY the honest government they deserve?” he said in a statement.

The conviction follows that of Sheldon Silver, the former Speaker of the State Assembly, who was found guilty on November 30, and is another notch on the belt of US Attorney Preet Bharara, perhaps the most powerful prosecutor in America at the moment. During the trial, Anthony Bonomo, the company’s CEO, testified that the senator had implored him to hire the son. “You can be a state senator, and you can be a father”.

Dean and Adam Skelos declined to comment as they walked away from the courthouse, with Dean Skelos resting his hand on his son’s shoulder. Given the Skelos verdict, it’s particularly brazen and disturbing that Assemblyman Blake today announced that he will now serve private interests as a political consultant as well as attempting to serve the public interest.

Mr. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, was found guilty of using the powers of his office to illegally extort three companies into setting his son up with jobs and money.

Before they resigned their leadership roles after their arrests, Silver and Skelos were two of the so-called “Three Men In A Room”-the third being Gov. Andrew Cuomo-that set the state’s legislative and budget agenda”. “I don’t know that it’s going to change that much”, he said. “The justice system worked today”, Mr. Cuomo said. And Dean and Adam Skelos later were caught on tape by the Federal Bureau of Investigation talking about how they would use “FaceTime” to try to avoid having their talks recorded. It wasn’t immediately clear if the Skeloses planned to appeal the jury’s verdict.

Then there was former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, a Queens Democrat who inexplicably tried to buy his way on to the Republican line for New York City mayor and instead is now serving seven years in prison.

“Senator Skelos did not sell his office”, Gage the senator’s lawyer, G. Robert Gage, said in his closing. “The next step is post-trial motions, and we intend to pursue them vigorously”.