State Senator John Sampson is being accused of asking a paralegal to provide him with names of cooperating witnesses. New York Senator will be tried for asking a childhood friend, who’s a paralegal at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn, to supply him with cooperating witnesses’ names.
When New York Sen. John Sampson, now 50 years old, got a hint that he was the target of a lawsuit, he tried to handle the matter in a bizarre way: by asking a long-time childhood paralegal friend to provide him with the names of the cooperating witnesses.
The Paralegal, Samuel Noel, said he was ‘crushed’ when asked about being questioned about his doings in an ongoing cover-up of an alleged embezzlement scheme. Noel said that Sampson had upset his life and their long childhood friendship.
Sampson now is pleading not guilty of witness tampering and obstruction to justice, and his lawyers are denying any wrongdoings, calling it government entrapment and overreach. Sampson, who was re-elected last year, is going through turmoil right now.
By next week the closing arguments will be presented in federal court in Brooklyn.
A Brooklyn federal court judge, though signing an embezzlement charge, allowed prosecutors to go with an obstruction case that was mainly built on the sayings of Edul Ahmad, the broker, who pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud charges.
Edul Ahmad said that Senator Sampson said one late night that if he knew the whereabouts of the cooperators, he would sure remove them from the picture.
The jury also was provided with audio recordings of conversations recorded by Ahmad with Sampson at Queens restaurant in 2012. Ahmad agreed to the fact that he was the one who informed Sampson about the subpoena the government has put on his business documents.
Ahmad also testified that, when he showed the loan records to the Senator and asked about what his next move should be, the Senator said that Ahmad should keep this fact a secret.
On the other hand, Noel, who is now 47 years old, described how he met Sampson while staying in Brooklyn and created a friendship that lasted for years. He testified that he accepted to help Sampson through his operations just because they were friends. Sampson approached Noel in 2011 and asked him to supply with inside information about the mortgage fraud investigation. Noel stated that he was concerned about Sampson’s state.
