The Spirit of Shelly Silver

Has former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver been secretly working for the US House of Representatives? Sure seems that way, given the bombshell disclosure that the House has shelled out over $15 million in taxpayer hush money during the past two decades to settle sexual-harassment and other discrimination lawsuits against members.

That’s eerily similar to what the New York Assembly did under Silver.

As Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) charged Tuesday, none of the House’s payments were made public. None of the legislators involved were publicly identified. And none were required to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of their transgressions.

Plus, the Treasury Department lumps all the payments together in an annual report without breaking them down by settlement type — which obscures the details.

All this should sound familiar to New Yorkers. As speaker, Silver orchestrated secret payments to women who’d brought sexual-harassment and assault charges against incumbent Assembly members.

He even arranged a payment to a woman who was assaulted by Silver’s own top legal aide — an aide who had earlier been accused of date rape by another woman, but the Assembly dismissed the case.

As with the congressional payments, funds for Silver’s zip-your-lips money came from taxpayers. And nothing was made public for years, sending a clear message that harassment would remain unpunished.

Now, more and more women are coming forward with charges of harassment on Capitol Hill. Speier herself says she was sexually assaulted when she was a staffer.

Her office is being flooded with similar stories, including from one woman who says a congressman exposed himself to her. And their complaints make it seem like such behavior is practically encouraged. Staffers currently aren’t allowed to even

file a complaint until they’ve undergone 30 days of mandatory counseling and signed a non-disclosure agreement, then undergone 30 days of mediation, followed by a 30-day “cooling off period.”

As Speier says, this process is meant to protect harassers, not the harassed. It has no more place in DC than in Albany.