NEW YORK (AP) – Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver abused his position as one of the most powerful men in state government to give preferential professional treatment to two women with whom he had extramarital affairs, federal prosecutors said in court documents unsealed Friday.
The government said he used his position as speaker to help one woman who lobbied him on a regular basis and to get a state government job for the other.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan unsealed the papers Friday. The Democrat’s lawyers and a lawyer for one of the women, who were not identified, had opposed the release.
A day earlier, Silver declined comment as he left a court hearing over the issue. On Friday, his lawyers – Steven Molo and Joel Cohen – released a statement calling the revelations “simply unproven and salacious allegations that have no place in this case or public discussion.”
Prosecutors had hoped to use evidence of the affairs, including a taped conversation in which Silver and one of the women spoke “quietly and in whispers,” at Silver’s trial last year to counter any witnesses who might testify about his integrity, ethics, honesty and truthfulness.