Closing arguments expected in Skelos trial

“With regard to Senator Skelos, we think that decision is properly made at the close of the government’s case”, Gage said in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

But defense lawyers said those witnesses are not credible, pointing to nonprosecution deals they signed with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony.

Indeed, tons of NY corruption involves elected officials using their positions to enrich family and friends. The companies include Roslyn-based Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers (PRI), New Hyde Park-based Glenwood Management and Arizona-based AbTech Industries.

The prosecutor said the 57-year-old Republican was in lockstep with his 33-year-old son, Adam, as he violated the law and abused his powerful state post.

His Democratic Party counterpart in the state Assembly, former Speaker Sheldon Silver, was convicted last week in the same federal court of collecting millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.

Of the two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who took the stand, one testified that he conducted surveillance on Sen.

Before relinquishing their leadership posts following their arrests this year, Silver and Skelos were two of the so-called “three men in a room”, along with the governor, who control major legislation in Albany. The funeral is where Skelos asked Mangano about the county’s late payments to AbTech. Their lawyers were to give their closing arguments on Wednesday.

The statement by Skelos during a brief colloquy with the judge set the stage for closing arguments beginning this afternoon and a climactic verdict that could come as early as this week. Once concluded, the judge will instruct the jury on how to begin their deliberations.