Arrest of top NY lawmaker on federal corruption charges puts Senate in dismay

The arrest of an influential NY lawmaker on federal corruption charges has put the state’s Senate in a complicated position.

Senate leader Dean Skelos, 67, of Long Island had been charged with extortion and soliciting bribes on Monday and is reported to have used his influence to assemble payments for his son Adam Skelos, 32, who has also been charged.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office is prosecuting Skelos, said that the charges against Skelos further prove that “public corruption is a deep-seated problem in New York State. It is a problem in both chambers. It is a problem on both sides of the aisle.”

The Senate’s GOP members got together on Monday night for discussing Skelos’s future in politics and Sen. Kenneth LaValle, R-Long Island concluded that the possibility of keeping Skelos as their leader for the rest of the session is highly likely.

LaValle told reporters, “We have a number of issues that we are going to address. We have 5½ weeks left in the session and we are going to get focused.”

Lawmakers are anticipating bringing an end to their session next month after voting whether to renew or modify NYC’s rent regulations and tax break for the real estate developers of Manhattan. The charges against Skelos have the possibility of making those discussions incendiary.

According to authorities, Skelos has used his influence for extorting money from others with business including hundreds of thousands from a senior executive of a major real estate development who had been cooperating with the government. The money had been paid to son Adam Skelos, with the expectation that Dean Skelos would be using his position for supporting the legislative priorities of the developer.

The father and son had been ordered to turn in their passports at a brief court appearance on Monday in NYC and then had been released.

Dean Skelos said afterward, “I have the utmost respect for our judges and our juries and that’s why I will be found innocent and my son will.”

According to a criminal complaint, Dean Skelos had promoted and voted for real estate legislation which the developer had been seeking and it included some relevance to rent regulation and property tax abatements.

The complaint said Skelos, an attorney, has been paid over $2.6 million since 1994 by a law firm for which did not perform any actual legal work, but instead had been paid for referring clients and meet with them about legislative matters.

Some evidence had been acquired through wiretaps on cellphones used by the father and son for supporting charges which includes three counts of extortion, two counts of soliciting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, according to court papers. These charges carried a possible penalty of more than 80 years in prison.

The complaint said that after being re-elected as majority leader in January Dean Skelos bragged to his son in one conversation: “I’m going to be president of the Senate. I’m going to be majority leader. I’m going to control everything.”