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Malcolm Smith jailed for 7 years
Former top Senate Democrat Malcolm Smith (pictured above leaving court) was hammered with a seven-year prison term yesterday for trying to bribe his way onto the city’s mayoral ballot.
Next up for the feds are two more scandal-scarred state leaders: Dean Skelos (left) and Sheldon Silver.
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Malcolm Smith to seven years in prison, saying the former state Senate majority leader corrupted the political process by trying to buy his way onto the ballot in a crooked bid to become mayor of New York City.
No amount of good deeds, not Smith’s community advocacy, church leadership or political authority, were enough to offset his attempts to pollute the process, said Judge Kenneth Karas, who chided the oncepowerful Smith for violating the public’s trust.
Summing it up in blunt terms, Karas said, “If Mr. Smith had just said no to the scoundrel, which would have been so easy — ‘This is crazy, I’m not going to buy my way, even if I think I’m going to be the best mayor in the history of New York City, I’m not going to do it, I’m going to respect the process’ — then we wouldn’t be here.”
US Attorney Preet Bharara — who earlier this year brought separate corruption cases that toppled Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos from their leadership posts — lauded Karas’ stiff sentence.
“By attempting to buy and sell a spot on New York City’s mayoral ballot, Malcolm Smith and [accomplice] Vincent Tabone corrupted one of the most fundamental tenets of the democratic process,” Bharara said.
Dozens of New York politicians have faced legal or ethics charges since 2000, including John Sampson, who replaced Smith as the Senate’s Democratic leader and who is currently on trial in Brooklyn federal court for alleged obstruction of justice.
Smith, 52, chose not to address the court and had no visible reaction when he heard the sentence.
But in a letter to the judge, he insisted that his only motivation was to achieve his dream of becoming mayor.
“Was I ‘greedy’ for power?” he wrote. “Is that why I wanted to be mayor? No . . . What excited me, what filled me with hopefulness — and yes, pride — was the opportunity I had to help others.”
But Karas, in the end, was not swayed, handing Smith a sen
tence that was just below the maximum under the guidelines.
Instead of slugging it out with his fellow Democrats, Smith, one of Albany’s most powerful leaders, sought to buy his way onto the GOP line in 2013 so he could run for City Hall as a Republican, prosecutors said.
Smith, who represented southeast Queens in the state Senate, was done in when he unknowingly turned to Moses Stern — a crooked Rockland County developer who was, in fact, a cooperating federal witness — as well as another man Smith thought was a developer but who was actually an undercover federal agent. He pushed both for money and help trying to fix the election.
In turn, Smith promised them $500,000 in transportation funds for a project in Spring Valley.
As Smith left the courthouse, he said only, “I thank God for the opportunity I’ve had to serve.”
His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, vowed to appeal, saying after the sentencing, “Obviously, I’m disappointed. I think Malcolm Smith was entrapped.”
Shargel had requested a sentence of a year and a day, arguing that Smith had been lured into the scheme by an informant.
The attorney requested that Smith be sent to the Otisville Correctional Facility, about 80 miles north of the city, to make it easier for family visits
Karas also sentenced Tabone, a former Queens Republican Party vice chair who was convicted of receiving bribes on Smith’s behalf, to 3¹/₂ years in prison. Tabone was also or dered to forfeit the $25,000 he received in bribes.
In order get on the GOP line, Smith needed the support of at least three of the five borough Republican committees, including Tabone’s.
In February, a White Plains federal jury took just 90 minutes to find Smith and Tabone guilty on the bribery charges. Tabone was also convicted of witness tampering.
Afederal judge sent former state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith away for seven years’ hard time on Wednesday — and Judge Kenneth Karas’ explanation of that sentence is a warning to New York’s entire political class.
The prosecution, he said, “is absolutely right that what makes this case different than the others is the corruption of the process, and that’s the heart of Mr. Smith’s role in this case.”
“What makes it different in a bad way is that Mr. Smith was the main beneficiary. He wanted to be the mayor.”
Though a Democrat, Smith wanted to run as a Republican — so he needed three county GOP chairmen to agree. And to get those OKs, he tried to have third parties bribe some chairmen — in exchange for Smith’s promise to get public funding for their project.
“The corruption of the process is really serious,” the judge noted. If elected officials are “going to invoke selfless good deeds, then they have to be selfless in their respect of the process.
“And of all the people in this scheme who were going to benefit the most, it was the person who wanted to be the mayor, even if he wanted to be a good mayor. Because some body who wants to be a good mayor doesn’t get to be a good mayor if he gets there by using corruption to achieve the office.”
The judge also wrote off Smith’s entrapment defense. “If Mr. Smith had just said no to the scoundrel, which would have been so easy . . . then we wouldn’t be here.”
The judge means the sevenyear sentence as a message to other politicians: “People who are in Mr. Smith’s position, who may be in his position going forward, . . . have to say to themselves, ‘I don’t want to face the consequences of not giving my constituents or the people of the state of New York my honest services. . . Even if it means I won’t get to be the mayor, I’m not going to corruptly try to pursue the mayoralty, I’m not going to do it.”
One of Smith’s successors as leader of the state Senate, John Sampson, is on trial in another courtroom for his own abuses of power. Another, Dean Skelos, was indicted in May — just months after longtime Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s arrest. And the list of lesser state and city pols arrested or convicted for corruption in recent years runs to the dozens.
All New York politicians should ponder Judge Karas’ warning. If it sticks in their craw, it’s time to find another line of work.