Federal court in Manhattan. Photo via Flickr user Jeffrey Zeldman
For the second time in a matter of weeks, a former top player in New York State government got convicted on Friday, the latest head to roll over what by most accounts is a cesspool of political corruption in the Empire State.
Former State Senate Majority leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam were found guilty by a jury of all eight counts—their crimes included bribery, extortion, and conspiracy—as the New York Times reports. At issues were allegations that Skelos used his position to solicit three businesses for cash and lucrative employment opportunities—including a “no-show job”—for his son.
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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. What remains to be seen, of course, is whether the ouster of two of the “three men in a room”—the top legislative leaders and the governor who decide how to run New York—will have any impact on their former colleagues in the state capital of Albany.
