Sheldon Silver Found Guilty In Retrial: Reports

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The ex-assembly speaker Sheldon Silver was found guilty of corruption in a retrial on Friday, according to reporters inside the courtroom.

This is the second trial and second conviction for the longtime New York Democrat, who prosecutors said accepted millions of dollars in payments in exchange for official actions.

Sheldon, who lived in the Lower East Side, was arrested in 2015. Authorities presented evidence that Silver ensured that state grants totaling $500,000 were awarded to a cancer researcher at Columbia, Dr. Robert Taub. In a complicated exchange of favors, Taub then referred his patients with legal claims to a law firm that gave Silver a cut of those patients' legal fees, prosecutors said.

Sheldon was found guilty on all the corruption charges against him in his first trial at the end of 2015. Last year, that conviction was overturned by an appeals court, to a recent Supreme Court ruling that changed the definition of when a public official may be tried for public corruption.

Sheldon faced the same charges this year, and was found guilty Friday of obtaining nearly $4 million in exchange for using his position to help others.

Silver was elected as speaker in 1994 and served until his conviction in 2015.

"Sheldon Silver, the former New York State Assembly Speaker, took an oath to act in the best interests of the people of New York State," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. "As a unanimous jury found, he sold his public office for private greed."

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who prosecuted Silver in 2015, tweeted that "New Yorkers should be grateful," for Silver's conviction.

This is a developing story. Please refresh this page for updates.

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