Skelos in '$#!t' fit at gov
Former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos vowed to run against “full of s--t” Andrew Cuomo after the governor came out against fracking in late 2014, it emerged at Skelos’ corruption retrial on Thursday.
Skelos made the comment after his son, Adam, complained that the Cuomo administration was taking an anti-fracking stance at a time when Adam stood to make money from fracking through a company that Dean Skelos allegedly squeezed into giving his son a job.
“Ahhh! This day sucks,” Adam whined the day the Cuomo administration concluded that fracking could pose significant health risks.
“He’s such a pussy. How do we beat him in the election?” Adam bawled.
“We will. I’m going to run against him,” the Long Island Republican responded.
“Kick his ass,” Adam cheered.
“Yep. I’m going to do it,” Skelos said, adding, “He’s full of s--t. He’s full of s--t.”
Prosecutors played the recorded comments at the Skeloses’ Manhattan federal corruption retrial, which is unfolding on the same floor as a trial over alleged bidrigging in Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program to revitalize upstate.
Dean Skelos, once one of the most powerful men in Albany, stands accused of strong-arming companies he had power over into giving Adam do-nothing jobs and consulting gigs, including AbTech, a firm that cleans up polluted water.
Prosecutors played audio of the father-son bonding session during the testimony of Queens state Sen. Tony Avella, who said that he wouldn’t have voted for three bills brought to the floor by Skelos that aided companies that had employed Adam if he had known about the “conflict of interest.”
The Skeloses’ 2015 convictions on corruption charges were tossed out on appeal, thanks to a US Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the definition of public corruption.
As a result, the feds were forced to try them again.