Yikes! Take Shel-ter
Dem felon’s fury toward Post photog
Crooked ex-pol Sheldon Silver almost added assault to his criminal record on Monday when he blew his stack at a Post photographer.
The prison-bound former state Assembly speaker emerged from his apartment building on the Lower East Side shortly after 6 p.m. and recognized the shutterbug from past encounters.
“Get away from me! You have enough photographs!” he said from behind a face mask.
The disgraced Democrat — who is set to start serving a 6¹/2 -year sentence for corruption on Wednesday — then balled up his plastic-gloved right hand into a fist and threatened to take a swing.
“I’m gonna punch you in your mouth!” he said.
“You have enough pictures! I’m gonna break your camera!”
At that point, Silver’s son, Edward Silver, pulled up in a gray Toyota Camry and managed to pacify his pop.
“Dad! Dad! Calm down!” Edward said.
But Silver, 76, couldn’t resist getting in one last dig at the photojournalist — as well as New York City’s favorite tabloid.
“You’re a scumbag and the newspaper you work for!” he said while getting into the car.
Despite the mistreatment, the photographer politely helped the felon shut the passenger-side door, prompting thanks from both father and son.
The men drove away, only to return about 25 minutes later, with
Edward hopping into a parked Chrysler Sebring and pulling out of the space, and Silver maneuvering the Camry into it.
Asked when he planned to leave for prison, Silver bizarrely replied, “I left yesterday,” then went into his building.
Silver spent more than five years battling charges of fraud, extortion and money laundering following his 2015 arrest for schemes that netted him nearly $4 million in bribes and kickbacks.
He avoided prison by appealing his jury conviction later that year, and again by mounting another appeal after he was reconvicted in 2018.
But justice was finally served when Manhattan federal Judge Valerie Caproni sentenced him for a third time last month and ordered him to report to prison, despite defense claims that he could contract COVID-19 there.
“This was corruption pure and simple,” Caproni said.
“The time, however, has now come for Mr. Silver to pay the piper.”
Silver’s lawyer, James Loonam, declined to comment.