Dean Skelos, the Republican leader of the state Senate, will soon have something in common with Sheldon Silver, his former Democratic counterpart in the Assembly — a federal grand jury is planning to indict him on corruption charges, law-enforcement sources told The Post Friday.
It was not clear what specific charges will be filed against Skelos, but an arrest may come as early as Monday as part of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s drive to clean up the state Legislature.
Also to be indicted is Skelos’ son, Adam, who once worked for an Arizona engineering company that won a big- bucks contract for a job in Nassau County, even though competing firms submitted lower bids, according to the sources.
It’s not known whether Skelos will follow the lead of Silver — who stepped down as Assembly speaker following his corruption indictment — after charges are filed.
The Democrats will unleash a “fierce campaign’’ to get Skelos to step down if the Long Island lawmaker is charged, The Post’s Fredric U. Dicker reported earlier this week.
Skelos, of Rockville Centre, was first elected to the Senate in 1984.
Bharara has been on a crusade ever since Gov. Cuomo disbanded his own anti-corruption commission in March 2014.
“Archimedes said to move Earth itself, all he needed was a long-enough lever and a place to stand,” Bharara recently told a forum at Fordham Law School.
“To put it blunter, in New York terms: If we could clean up Times Square, can we really not clean up Albany?’’
Meanwhile, the Skelos probe is going to weaken Republicans and improve the chances of enacting tougher rent regulations in the city, Democratic lawmakers said Friday.
“I think it strengthens the city’s ability to move forward with what it needs to do in housing,” state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said following a strategy session with tenant advocates at the downtown headquarters of the teachers union.
Krueger’s assessment was different than Cuomo’s, who said last week that the turmoil in Albany would make it harder to resolve major issues before the Legislature, such as extension of rent control.
Mayor de Blasio was among those at the strategy session and legislators said he pledged to support an end to vacancy decontrol, which allows landlords to remove apartments from rent stabilization when the rent reaches $2,500.
Additional reporting by Aaron Short