Sheldon Silver
Sheldon Silver is a former lawyer from New York City, Democratic Party politician, Speaker of the New York State Assembly, and felon who was convicted of corruption at trials in 2015 and 2018.
Silver was arrested on federal corruption charges in early 2015, and resigned as Speaker of the Assembly shortly afterward. At his trial that November, he was convicted of all charges; the felony convictions triggered his automatic expulsion from the Assembly.
In May 2016, Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to repay $5.3 million in ill-gotten gains and $1.75 million in additional fines. Silver's conviction was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, but in May 2018, following a retrial, he was found guilty on the same charges, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. After another appeal, the Second Circuit Court dismissed the guilty verdicts for three of the charges but upheld them for four other charges. He was resentenced in July 2020 to years prison and a $1 million fine.
Early life
An Orthodox Jew whose parents were Russian immigrants, Silver has lived all his life on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He graduated from the Rabbi Jacob Joseph High School on Henry Street, where he was captain of the basketball team. Silver graduated from Yeshiva University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965, and received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1968.Law career
Silver practiced law with the firm of Schecter and Schwartz from 1968 until 1971, and then served as law secretary for New York City Civil Court Judge Francis N. Pecora from 1971 to 1976. In addition to Silver's duties in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 2015, he was "of counsel" at Weitz & Luxenberg, one of New York State's largest personal injury litigation firms.For years, Weitz & Luxenberg insisted that Silver's ties with the firm were negligible. In 2007, the New York Post charged that Silver's refusal to disclose the terms of his employment or the income he received raised suspicions of a conflict of interest. When these details became public, the income he had received from Weitz & Luxenberg and the manner in which Silver obtained it ultimately led to his arrest, resignation as Speaker, conviction, and prison sentence.
Political career
Elections
He was first elected to the Assembly in 1976 and rose to key committee leadership positions. He represented the Assembly District variously numbered as 62nd through 65th, comprising much of Lower Manhattan, notably the Financial District and the former World Trade Center site. Silver advanced to the chairmanship of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee in 1991, and served in this post until becoming Speaker.During the election years of his speakership, 1994–2014, Silver's district typically re-elected him with 80 to 90 percent of the vote. In 2008, he had his first Democratic primary challenge in over two decades, winning 69 percent, or 7,037 votes, to defeat his challengers, Paul Newell, who earned 22 percent, and Luke Henry with 9 percent. Silver was re-elected on November 4 with 27,632 votes. His Republican challenger, Danniel Maio, received 7,387 votes.
Speaker of New York State Assembly
On February 11, 1994, after Saul Weprin died from a stroke, Silver became the Speaker of the New York State Assembly. He was re-elected 11 times.Death penalty
As Speaker, Silver was instrumental in the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York State in 1995. It was eventually ruled unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals in 2004, as the law stipulated that if jurors were deadlocked between sentences of life without parole and execution, the court would sentence the defendant to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after serving 20 to 25 years.The Court ruled that in such a case, execution would seem unfairly preferable to the jury. New York's crime rate had dropped significantly in the decade since the law was passed, without seeing a single execution, and Silver let the law expire without much debate.
In December 2005, after two New York City police officers were killed in as many months, Governor George Pataki called for reinstatement of the death penalty. The New York Times quoted Silver's spokesman Charles Carrier as saying, "He no longer supports it because Assembly hearings have shown it is not the most effective way to improve public safety."
Affordable housing
In 1997 and throughout his Assembly career, Silver was a key advocate of state-administered rent regulation of New York apartments. This complex and highly politicized system made the Speaker a central figure, continually courted by major participants in the real-estate industry.In 1967, New York City leveled the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area in Silver's neighborhood, and removed more than 1,800 low-income largely Hispanic families, with a promise that they could return to new low-income apartments when they were built. However, the site was kept undeveloped for decades afterward, as Silver and key allies strove to maintain the area's Jewish identity and opposed affordable housing, which would have brought more Hispanic and Chinese residents. Finally in 2012, the site was approved for the Essex Crossing mixed-use development project. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2024, some 57 years after the site was cleared.
Commuter tax
In 1999, Silver was instrumental in the repeal of New York City's commuter tax on non-resident earners. The repeal was a benefit to those commuting to work in the city from surrounding areas, but came at a substantial cost to New York City residents. Silver was criticized by city leaders for removing the tax, and although he suggested he would support reinstating it after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he took no steps to do so.Attempted "coup" and criticism
In 2000, Silver faced an attempted "coup" in the Assembly as members, primarily from Upstate New York and dissatisfied with his leadership style, tried to overthrow him as Speaker. Michael Bragman, the leader of the backlash, lost his position as majority leader. An editorial in The Buffalo News, written in response, criticized Silver for having too much power:The problem—which also exists in the State Senate—can be boiled down to a single overarching issue: The Assembly speaker has too much power. He controls everything, from the legislation that can be voted on to how his normally docile members vote on it. He decides what the Assembly will accept in a state budget. He negotiates secretly with the other two leaders to hammer out important, expensive and far-reaching laws. And he ignores the wishes of less-exalted lawmakers.
Similar criticisms of New York State's "three men in a room" have been widespread for years.
New York congestion tolls
In July 2007, Silver was skeptical about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York congestion pricing program. When a meeting of the Democratic Assembly Conference indicated the proposal lacked sufficient support, Silver declined to schedule a vote on the measure, and it died. Although he stated that he "probably would have voted for the bill," a majority of his conference opposed the proposed plan.Proponents argued that it would reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions, lead to less-crowded streets, and raise much-needed funds for public transportation, while opponents objected to the notion of a new driving tax.
Mixed martial arts
Silver, in his role as Speaker, was widely blamed for the delay in passing A04146A through the Assembly to legalize professional mixed martial arts in New York State. New York became the last of the 50 states to allow the sport in early 2016, after Silver's expulsion from the Assembly.Failure to investigate sexual harassment
A former top aide to Silver, chief counsel J. Michael Boxley, was accused of raping two legislative aides while he was working for the Speaker, and Boxley eventually pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct. Silver was sued for failing to investigate the accusations properly and for tolerating a culture of sexual harassment in the Assembly. In 2006, Silver and the Assembly leadership agreed to pay $500,000 to settle the lawsuit. Similar settlements in 2012 and 2015 resulted from multiple harassment charges against former Assemblyman Vito Lopez, and Silver was accused of not acting forcefully to prevent Lopez's behavior. Silver apologized for not reporting cases to the Assembly's Ethics Committee as required, and said that since then he "put in place new policies to ensure these incidents are dealt with swiftly and transparently."Criminal proceedings
On January 7, 2015, Silver was re-elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly for the 11th time, with almost unanimous support from the Democratic majority despite an ongoing federal probe into his outside income.Two weeks later, on January 22, Silver was arrested on federal corruption charges resulting from that probe. The federal inquiry, which followed the state's abrupt disbandment of its Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, focused on large payments that Silver received for years from Goldberg & Iryami, a law firm that specialized in seeking reductions of New York City real estate taxes for real estate developers. Silver was alleged to have persuaded developers who had business with the state to use the firm, which in turn generated $700,000 in referral fees to Silver. Investigators led by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara charged that Silver did not properly disclose the payments from the firm on his annual financial disclosure filings with the state. Goldberg & Iryami's major client was the state's single-largest political donor. One of the firm's founders partner, Jay Goldberg, was Silver's former Assembly counsel. Goldberg's partner at the firm, Dara Iryami, agreed to testify under immunity.
Similar charges were also filed involving millions of dollars in referral fees that Silver received from the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg. In this scheme, Silver was alleged to have directed about $500,000 in state grants to Dr. Robert Taub, a researcher in diseases caused by asbestos and the director of the Columbia University Mesothelioma Center. Taub then referred asbestos claimants to Weitz & Luxemburg, which paid Silver $1.4 million in salary and another $3.9 million in referral fees, although he did no work for them. After the charges were announced, Weitz and Luxemburg promptly placed Silver on leave. Both Taub and another of Silver's longtime associates, Brian Meara, provided key information to investigators in exchange for non-prosecution agreements.
On January 30, after a week of intense political pressure and dwindling support, Silver submitted his resignation as Speaker, effective February 2, while retaining his seat as a member of the Assembly and vowing to fight the charges against him. On February 3, the Assembly elected Carl Heastie as their new Speaker.
On April 25, 2015, Silver was indicted on additional charges of making illegal investments through private vehicles, netting a profit of $750,000. He pleaded not guilty to those charges three days later, on April 28.
Trial
Silver's trial on seven corruption charges lasted for much of November 2015. On November 30, 2015, a unanimous jury found Silver guilty on all seven counts, triggering automatic expulsion from the Assembly. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, which handles judicial and attorney misconduct, affirmed his automatic disbarment for the felony convictions.On May 3, 2016, federal judge Valerie E. Caproni of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who presided over the trial, sentenced Silver to 12 years in prison, and ordered him to pay $5.3 million in ill-gotten gains and $1.75 million in additional fines. Silver received two prison terms: 12 years for six criminal counts against him and 10 years on the seventh, to run concurrently.
Appeal
After the conviction, he remained free on bail as a panel of judges considered his appeal based on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in McDonnell v. United States that reversed the corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell.The Supreme Court decision in the McDonnell case narrowed the kinds of activities that could constitute corruption, and Silver's conviction was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan on July 13, 2017.
Second trial, conviction, appeal, and resentencing
After his conviction was overturned, Silver was retried on the same charges. On May 11, 2018, he was again found guilty on all counts. On July 27, 2018, Judge Caproni sentenced him to seven years in prison, five years less than the sentence she gave him for his first conviction, citing his advancing age.Silver was due to report to prison on October 5, 2018, but this was stayed as he again appealed his conviction to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. While his case was under continued appeal, he remained free on $200,000 bail.
On March 14, 2019, a week before Silver had been rescheduled to report to prison, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit issued a decision without explanation, that allowed him to remain free while they continued to consider his appeal. Two of three judges on the panel questioned whether the alleged bribery schemes fit the Supreme Court's narrowed definition of corruption.
On January 21, 2020, the panel unanimously dismissed the three charges stemming from Silver's involvement in the asbestos exposure cases but upheld the four charges related to the kickbacks from Goldberg & Iryami and money laundering, sending the case back to Judge Caproni for resentencing. Silver was resentenced by Judge Caproni on July 20, this time to years in prison and a fine of $1 million. He is scheduled to report to prison on August 26, 2020.
Personal life
Silver and his wife Rosa, a former special needs schoolteacher, have four adult children. According to court papers unsealed during the sentencing phase of his first trial, Silver was alleged to have had two extra-marital affairs, both of which were connected to his Albany position.By the time he became Speaker of the Assembly, he was known to play basketball with other high-ranking officials, including former Governor Mario Cuomo and former Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.
Two weeks after Silver's first criminal conviction, his son-in-law Marcello Trebitsch was sentenced to prison for a separate multimillion-dollar crime, also prosecuted by Bharara's office.