Slammer looms for Sheldon
Graft sentence today
Disgraced former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will be hauled before a Manhattan judge on Monday for his resentencing in a bribery scheme.
Lawyers for the 76-year-old Manhattan legislator-turned-felon tried to persuade a federal judge last week to allow him to appear by video feed for his sentencing because of the coronavirus, but the jurist balked.
“The courthouse has reopened to the public and implemented screening at entry, mask and social-distancing requirements, and sanitation protocols, among other precautions,” federal Judge Valerie Caproni wrote in her ruling.
“This court is currently holding in-person proceedings where those measures are all observed. Accordingly, it is the court’s preference to conduct Mr. Silver’s resentencing at the courthouse.”
Silver (inset) refused to comment to The Post on Sunday as he hopped in his car outside his Grand Street home in lower Manhattan while wearing a face mask.
Once one of the most influential and entrenched powerbrokers in the state, Silver was convicted in 2015 of misusing his position to rake in nearly $4 million in kickbacks from schemes involving a cancer doctor and two real-estate developers.
The ex-politician was sentenced to 12 years behind bars but remained free on appeal, and the verdict was eventually tossed on a technicality.
He was then convicted at his 2018 retrial and sentenced to seven years in prison by Caproni.
“I believe that it is a tiny minority of public officials who are as corrupt as Mr. Silver,” Caproni said at the time.
“But even if it is a tiny minority, it has to stop.’’
Silver appealed the case, and the counts against him involving the medical researcher were tossed, but he still faces sentencing on the remaining charges involving the developers.
In the latter scheme, Silver arranged for the builders, Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group, to send their tax business to a firm that kicked back a portion of the fees to him.
Prosecutors have said Silver still deserves a seven-year sentence, while he argues that he should not be forced to serve time in prison given his age and the health risks associated with COVID-19.