The stench is still just as strong

THE OVERTURNING 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 midgame 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 longtime 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 changed the way bribery cases could be tried.

“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.

For Silver, regardless of whether he is convicted again or not, his legacy is cemented — and it’s not a good one.