In urging the Supreme Court to hear Mr. Silver’s case, his lawyers said that legal standard gave prosecutors too much power. “The Second Circuit approved jury instructions that allowed a state official to be convicted of federal bribery on a jury’s after-the-fact finding that the official had an unexpressed, unilateral understanding (or misunderstanding) that he was being bribed,” the lawyers wrote in their petition seeking Supreme Court review. It also cited last year’s ruling in the “Bridgegate” case, in which the court unanimously overturned the convictions of two defendants in a case from New Jersey. That was an abuse of power, the Supreme Court ruled, but not a federal crime. In the final days of his administration, President Donald J. Trump considered granting clemency to Mr. Silver, who was sentenced to a 78-month prison term, but decided not to after criticism from Republicans in New York.

Source: New York Times January 25, 2021 15:22 UTC