The overturning Thursday of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s federal conviction does little to restore the once powerful pol’s reputation or that of the institution he once led.
The indictment, trial, and conviction of Silver on charges he used his office to line his own pockets highlighted the government-for-sale operation in New York — even if an appeals court found the jury was improperly instructed when deciding his fate thanks to a mid-game rule change by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Silver lost his speakership, his long-time Lower Manhattan Assembly seat and his reputation.
“The goal was not to send this guy to jail,” said one long-time Silver sympathizer. “It was to ruin his life and they did that.”
The case — along with a separate one brought and won against former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — also sent a strong message to others in the scandal-scarred Legislature that there was a cop on the beat watching. That message shouldn’t change.
It’s no coincidence that for the first time in recent memory, legislative leaders earned virtually nothing in outside income in 2016. Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) and Senate Independent Democratic Leader Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) gave up their law work in recent years rather than invite unwanted scrutiny.
Silver’s conviction was overturned as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that came down after his conviction that involved a case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell that changed the way bribery cases could be tried.
Silver’s conviction wasn’t overturned because the federal appeals court found he did nothing wrong. It was tossed because the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office brought the case under the old rules.
“If using public money to buy lucrative clients for your law firm is not corruption then I don’t know what is,” said Thomas Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York. “With this devastating decision, the judge has signaled that government is for sale and has likely opened the flood gates to more corruption.”
Regardless of the reason behind Thursday’s decision, the result is nonetheless an embarrassment for Preet Bharara, the hard-driving U.S. attorney who was fired earlier this year by President Trump.
The Silver and Skelos convictions were the feather in the cap of his corruption busting efforts. He was applauded in many circles of striking at the heart of Albany corruption even while others accused him of grandstanding and playing to the media in an unseemly way.
But the bottom line was he won. He took down Silver and Skelos. He earned his white knight reputation.
But now Silver remains a free man, even though Bharara’s old office said it will re-try him.
“Although it will be delayed, we do not expect justice to be denied,” said acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim.
Bharara better hope so.
He already suffered previous black eyes with the overturning of some of his insider trading convictions.
“In this case, you can’t really fault Preet,” said former federal prosecutor Bradley Simon of the Silver decision. “The state of the law was different when he brought the case. It’s an unusual situation where the law changed after the fact.”
A similar thing happened when the U.S. Attorney’s office from the Northern District brought a corruption case against former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. Bruno was convicted on two counts that were later tossed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision changed the rules. The government retried Bruno and lost.
Since his firing earlier this year by Trump, Bharara has often been mentioned as potential political candidate, which he has denied he is contemplating. He has used his Twitter feed to comment on issues of the day, often mocking what he sees.
He better hope his old office can salvage the Silver case and doesn’t lose Skelos or else his Eliot Ness-like reputation will be forever tarred.
“Preet’s legacy is going bye-bye,” crowed one gleeful critic. “The combination of the insider trader stuff and now this. To me, what is his legacy? Seriously.”
For Silver, regardless of whether he is convicted again or not, his legacy is cemented — and it’s not a good one.
