Former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will head to trial in April after the U.S. Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear his appeal to avoid retrial on corruption charges.
In July, a three-judge panel in the U.S. Second Circuit of Appeals ruled that the Democrat’s 2015 conviction by a jury was invalid based on the Supreme Court’s ruling in former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s case.
The McDonnell case raised the the legal standard for criminal bribery, but now Silver is facing a retrial slated for April 16, according to Newsday.
Silver was convicted by a jury of honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering for receiving money in exchange for official actions benefiting a new Hyde Park-based real estate firm, Glenwood Management, and a Manhattan physician, Dr. Robert Taub.
Following the Second Circuit’s ruling, Joon H. Kim, then acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, vowed to retry Silver.
“Although it will be delayed, we do not expect justice to be denied,” Kim had said in a statement.
Silver’s lawyer told Newsday he was disappointed by the decision but is hopeful about the retrial.
