A federal judge sent former state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith away for seven years’ hard time on Wednesday — and Judge Kenneth Karas’ explanation of that sentence is a warning to New York’s entire political class.
The prosecution, he said, “is absolutely right that what makes this case different than the others is the corruption of the process and that’s the heart of Mr. Smith’s role in this case.”
“What makes it different in a bad way is that Mr. Smith was the main beneficiary. He wanted to be the mayor.”
Though a Democrat, Smith wanted to run as a Republican — so he needed three county GOP chairmen to agree. And to get those OKs, he tried to have third parties bribe some chairmen — in exchange for Smith’s promise to get public funding for their project.
“The corruption of the process is really serious,” the judge noted. If elected officials are “going to invoke selfless good deeds, then they have to be selfless in their respect of the process.
“And of all the people in this scheme who were going to benefit the most, it was the person who wanted to be the mayor, even if he wanted to be a good mayor. Because somebody who wants to be a good mayor doesn’t get to be a good mayor if he gets there by using corruption to achieve the office.”
The judge also wrote off Smith’s entrapment defense. “If Mr. Smith had just said no to the scoundrel, which would have been so easy . . . then we wouldn’t be here.”
The judge means the seven-year sentence as a message to other politicians:
“People who are in Mr. Smith’s position, who may be in his position going forward, . . . have to say to themselves, ‘I don’t want to face the consequences of not giving my constituents or the people of the state of New York my honest services. . . Even if it means I won’t get to be the mayor I’m not going to corruptly try to pursue the mayoralty, I’m not going to do it.”
One of Smith’s successors as leader of the state Senate, John Sampson, is on trial in another courtroom for his own abuses of power.
Another, Dean Skelos, was indicted in May — just months after longtime Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s arrest. And the list of lesser state and city pols arrested or convicted for corruption in recent years runs to the dozens.
All New York politicians should ponder Judge Karas’ warning. If it sticks in their craw, it’s time to find another line of work.