Despite conversations recorded by federal investigators that strongly suggest state Sen. Malcolm Smith attempted to bribe his way into the mayor’s office, attorney Gerald Shargel said the senator is “not resigning.”
Smith is charged with bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy along with City Councilman Dan Halloran and former Queens Republican Party Vice Chairman Vince Tabone in an alleged scheme to pay off county Republican leaders to get Smith on the mayoral ballot.
Smith, a Democrat, wanted to run on the Republican line. In order to enter the GOP mayoral primary, he needed a waiver from three of the Republican county leaders. The GOP’s Halloran said he could arrange that — for a price.
The senator somehow imagined he could defeat former transit chief Joseph Lhota, the current frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination.
In February, an undercover FBI agent asked Tabone whether he could deliver the waiver for Smith to run in the primary, according to the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
“I run the Queens County Republican Party. Nobody else runs the party,” Tabone told the agent.
The suspected bribe-taking was uncovered by the FBI and investigators working for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The details gathered by these investigators and backed by hours of recordings should be shocking but they are not.
A cynicism pervades the public perception of city and state government. Voters expect corruption.
“As I’ve said once before, every time a politician is arrested in New York it should not feel like a scene from ‘Groundhog Day,’ and yet it does,” Bharara told reporters.
It was only last month that state Sen. Shirley Huntley, another Queens elected official, was sentenced to five years of probation in State Supreme Court for stealing more than $87,000 from a sham nonprofit to fund shopping sprees.
Smith, who was elected in 2000 and became the first black majority leader of the state Senate, is currently out on $250,000 bail. The secret recordings reveal a man who is not fit for public office.
Smith has done great damage. He has betrayed the trust of the people of southeast Queens.
He should give serious thought to resigning.
