U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was scolded by a federal judge today for his comments to the press and his office’s tweets in the aftermath of the arrest of former New York state Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. The embattled longtime Assembly leader had requested that his indictment be dismissed because of Bharara’s comments, which his attorneys described as prejudicial, but the case will go on despite the judge’s criticism.
“The U.S. Attorney … strayed so close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct that Defendant Sheldon Silver has a non-frivolous argument that he fell over the edge to the Defendant’s prejudice,” U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni said in an opinion released Friday afternoon.