Sheldon Silver, the disgraced former speaker of the New York State Assembly, is among the last tranche of people whom President Donald Trump will grant clemency before he leaves office Wednesday.
The New York Times reported Monday that Trump was set to pardon or commute the sentences of between 60 and more than 100 people.
The names will likely be a mix of people that justice reform activists say have been wronged by the criminal justice system and figures who have paid intermediaries to lobby Trump for clemency, or whom Trump knows.
It’s not clear why Silver, a Democrat who was prominent in Orthodox Jewish circles on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, would get clemency, although The Times noted that he has a professional connection with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Silver, 76, for years a fearsome power broker in New York politics, was sentenced in 2018 to seven years in prison in a federal fraud case involving kickbacks for using his influence as the Assembly speaker to dispense favors.
The Times also noted that Silver’s prosecutor was Preet Bharara, who has emerged as a prominent Trump critic.
cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: ’36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b’ }).render(‘4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6’); });
Related posts:
Trump Reveals Trailer of Explosive ‘2000 Mules’ Ballot Harvesting Documentary at Ohio Rally
Joe Biden’s Ties to Big Tech Emerge Amid Massive Pro-Trump Purge
Qatari official arrives in Gaza to discuss seaport file
Rod Blagojevich has thoughts about the Trump trials
Turkish President Erdogan Accuses U.S. Of Arming Kurdish ‘Terrorists’
Trump urged to suspend the Constitution and hold a re-vote