Powerful New York Assembly Speaker Arrested For Corruption

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, during a news conference on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
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New York longtime and powerful Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) was arrested Thursday morning on federal corruption charges, the New York Times reported.

Silver, who represents Manhattan, has served as speaker for more than two decades.

Law enforcement officials said Silver turned himself in, according to the Times. The newspaper reported that the federal inquiry by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York focused on payments Silver received from a small law firm and failed to list on his annual financial disclosure filings.

The firm, Goldberg & Iryami, specializes in seeking reductions in New York City real estate taxes on behalf of its clients. The nature of the work Silver did for the firm is unclear.

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  1. It’s about damn time.

  2. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

    Democrats in New York need to clean house, or have the house cleaned for them. Big time. Their corruption is what keeps the party from dominating the legislature.

  3. they dominate the assembly … there are conservative places in NY, so dominating both houses will be harder … it is not like the Republicans that control the Senate were clean as white snow either.

  4. Finally. This character has mucked up my state in every possible way. Throw the book at him.

  5. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    I hope they’ve got recordings or something written. Because if simply failing to report something on your ethics form were enough to send you to jail there would be a lot more legislators and judges behind bars. (Making it clear: Silver gives venality a bad name; I just hope the feds have put together a case he can’t skate around.)

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