Lawyers for Sheldon Silver, the former New York State Assembly speaker convicted of federal corruption charges, asked a judge on Thursday to acquit their client or grant him a new trial, arguing that “no rational juror” could find that the charges had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mr. Silver, 71, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who spent nearly 40 years in the Assembly and more than two decades as speaker, was convicted on Nov. 30 of all seven counts against him, including honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering.
The government’s evidence and testimony showed that Mr. Silver obtained nearly $4 million in illicit fees in return for taking official actions that helped benefit a cancer researcher at Columbia University and two New York real estate developers.
But Mr. Silver’s lawyers argued in court papers that the government failed to prove the existence of an agreement to exchange benefits for official actions.
No doubtr his lawyers are preparing to take advantage of a potentially favorable ruling from the Supreme Court in the McDonnnell case.