By: Deandra Molloro
The prison bound former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, threatened to punch out a NY Post photographer.
“Get away from me! You have enough photographs!” he screamed at Rashid Umar Abbasi
“I’m gonna punch you in your mouth, “You have enough pictures! I’m gonna break your camera!” the once powerful Democrat threatened.
Shortly after the Post chronicled: Silver’s son, Edward Silver, pulled up in a gray Toyota Camry and managed to pacify his pop.
“Dad! Dad! Calm down!” Edward said.
“You’re a scumbag and the newspaper you work for!”, the loving progressive barked as he was whisked away.
As previously reported by The Jewish Voice, close to $5 million was received by Silver in bribes and kickbacks from real estate developers and a cancer researcher in exchange for Silver using his position power in their favor, prosecutors allege. The funds were then laundered in private investment vehicles. According to prosecutors, he accumulated over $2 million in assets and set himself up an annual state pension of $70,000.
Silver’s conviction and 12-year prison sentence from November 2015 was overturned in July of 2017 at Manhattan federal appeals court, and he was set free on bail. The grounds for overturning his conviction cited that jurors must be instructed by the trial judge in a manner that conforms to a recent decision by the Supreme Court in which the public corruption conviction of Virginia Republican former-Governor Bob McDonnell was reversed.
Fast forward to March of 2018. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan rejected Silver’s lawyer’s appeal to dismiss the charges. 2 years later, the longtime Democrat politician will finally be going to jail, sand was sentenced to 6 ½ years by U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in late July.
The NY Times reported: “Your honor, I do not want to die in prison,” Mr. Silver, 76, wrote to the judge before the sentencing.
Valerie E. Caproni of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said that Mr. Silver had acted out of a sense of greed, and that he was guilty of “corruption, pure and simple.” She added that issuing a sentence that did not include prison time was not appropriate.
