NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo wasn’t the one in custody on Thursday. But the arrest of powerful New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver could spell plenty of trouble for his fellow Democrat.
The state’s chief executive will face tough questions over his handling of corruption in the legislature. Perhaps more worryingly, he’s been sent a sharp reminder that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara may be looking into why Cuomo killed an investigation into just the sort of double-dealing that Silver stands accused of.
Just hours after Silver’s arrest on bribery and kickback charges involving millions of dollars, Cuomo’s opponent in last year’s Democratic primary wrote an op-ed lambasting the governor for closing down the corruption commission he’d created in July 2013.
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Bharara himself has been unusually public in his criticism of Cuomo for shutting down the commission. He obliquely repeated that criticism on Thursday, stating that “a deal was cut that cut off the commission’s work, to the great relief of Sheldon Silver.”
But Bharara was unusually vague — intentionally so, he said when asked — as to who might be in his sights next.
“Our unfinished fight against public corruption continues,” he said. “You should stay tuned.”
