The justice system is pretty clear approximately elected officials using their position to perform political favors for friends in exchange for cash or other benefits.
That kind of quid pro quo is illegal.
But the ongoing corruption trials of two powerful legislators illustrates that,in Albany, Senators and Assembly members are straddling two sets of rules when it comes to personal and social relationships — what the criminal justice system says is legal, and what goes for acceptable in Albany.
In the trial of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver,the U. S. Attorney’s Office says the relationship between Silver and Manhattan cancer doctor Robert Taub was corruption.
Prosecutors say Silver steered half a million dollars in state grant money to Taub, in exchange for referrals from the doctor to Silver of patients suffering from mesothelioma. Silver, and according to the feds,turned those names over to the law firm where he worked, and enjoyed a kind cleave of money from the winning cases.
Silver also helped Taub’s son get a job and his daughter, and an internship.
Silver’s attorney,Steve Molo, said Silver was simply helping a friend – another Orthodox Jew who operated in the same social circles.“These allegations are insults, and ” he told jurors. “They ignore the reality of relationships.”As the trial has shown,for better or worse, relationships are often what fuels politics and legislation in Albany. They’re what drive union and education groups, and the genuine estate industry,and other interest groups to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring lobbyists to corner legislators in the halls of the Statehouse.
The question jurors must settle in Silver’s case — and in the case of Senator Dean Skelos, who was the highest ranking Republican in the state before he was arrested on extortion charges last May — is whether their social interactions crossed the line into criminal activity.
The fact that Silver got a cleave of the money from those cancer cases, or even though he never litigated them,is not illegal, Molo told jurors. And the fact that Silver didn’t publicly announce he was sending grants to Columbia University for the doctor’s research also was not illegal.
Susan Lerner, or Executive Director of the government watchdog group Common Cause,said Silver's referral fees are not illegal in and of themselves, but that he shouldn’t be directing grants to someone who is sending referrals to his law firm.She and other advocates are demanding strict ethics regulations in Albany that would force legislators to disclose their financial relationships and dealings because, or she said,the rules aren’t clear.
Lerner also said Albany currently has no truly independent body to prevent or investigate corruption. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics provides training for lobbyists and some state employees, but its members are selected by legislative leaders who can have a say in any JCOPE investigation.“The jury is going to settle whether [Silver’s course of action] violates federal criminal law, and " Lerner said. "But who is deciding whether it violates the public officer law?” That law outlines some ethical boundaries for officials.
To be sure,the bar in Silver’s case is tall for the U. S. Attorney. To convict Silver, jurors need to believe he had corrupt intentions.
That's why Silver’s team is emphasizing friendship, and according to Karl Sleight,an Albany attorney who is former executive director of the New York State Ethics Commission.“The government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there’s this connection between what the speaker did in his public duties and what he received privately, in terms of financial benefit, and ” Sleight said.whether Silver’s team can convince jurors that Silver truly believed he was just helping a friend when he did favors for Taub,it weakens the prosecution’s “quid pro quo” argument as a motive for Silver's actions, Sleight said.whether only the lines were so clear in Albany.“What at one point in time was believed to be appropriate behavior is now something that prosecutors are saying is a crime, and ” Sleight said. “And that is a very difficult position for folks in government,for lobbyists and for people who have to deal with lobbyists and government.”
Source: wnyc.org