Ex-state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s 2015 corruption conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court Thursday.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to vacate Silver’s conviction that he obtained nearly $4 million in bribes in exchange for his political power.
In a 54-page decision, the court cited the case of Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s former governor, whose corruption conviction was tossed after the US Supreme Court narrowed the definition of “official action.”
Silver — who at the time was one of the most powerful lawmakers in Albany — was found guilty on all seven counts against him that he engaged in two quid-pro-quo schemes in which used his position to benefit a cancer researcher and two real estate developers.
Columbia University cancer doctor Robert Taub got $500,000 in taxpayer-funded research grants from Silver for steering dozens of asbestos patients to the pol’s law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg.
Silver, 73, was sentenced in May 2016 to 12 years in federal prison.
In McDonnell, the US Supreme Court narrowed the definition of an “official act” and how it can be used in corruption convictions.
The Second Circuit ruled that instructions given to jurors in Silver’s case that defined an “official action” were “overbroad” — and that a properly instructed jury may not have found Silver guilty of corruption.
“Like the improper instruction in McDonnell, the plain language of the instruction at Silver’s trial captured lawful conduct, such as arranging meetings or hosting events with constituents,” Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes wrote in the decision.
“We cannot conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a rational jury would have found Silver guilty if it had been properly instructed on the definition of an official act.”
The appeals court hinged its ruling on several actions that the government presented as evidence during the nearly month-long trial — but which now fall short of bribery.
For example, it cited Silver’s decision in the fall of 2011 to help Taub “navigate” the process of securing permits for a proposed New York City charity race in Silver’s district to benefit mesothelioma research.
Ultimately, the race never took place.
Under the new rules of bribery, “a rational jury might have concluded that Silver did not engage in an official act when he agreed to help Dr. Taub with permits for his charity race,” the three-judge panel found.
The court also cast doubt on Silver’s decision in 2012 to help Taub’s son obtain a job with a nonprofit organization.
Writing a letter to help the son get a job “did not rise to the level of an ‘official act,'” the court said.
Prosecutors announced Thursday they will retry the aging Democrat — whose long tenure as speaker lasted from 1994, when he was first elected, to his arrest in 2015.
Fired Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, who led Silver’s conviction when he was still in office, did not immediately return requests for comment.
But on Twitter, the former top prosecutor said “the evidence was strong” and that he expected Silver “to be retried and re-convicted.”
In a statement, Silver’s lawyers said, “We are grateful the court saw it our way and reversed the conviction on all counts.”
The stunning ruling comes just days after the same court upheld the bribery conviction of former Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. on similar grounds questioning the jury instructions.
The ruling now calls into question the conviction against ex-state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who was found guilty in 2015 of shaking down more than $300,000 in payoffs and no-show jobs for his son, Adam, in exchange for his influence in Albany.
Dean Skelos — once known as one of Albany’s “Three Men in a Room” along with Silver — was sentenced to five years, while Adam, who was also convicted, got 6½ years.
Appeals of the Skeloses’ convictions are still pending.
Lawyers for the men did not immediately return requests for comment.