Sheldon Silver, speaker of New York State’s Assembly for over two decades, was arrested Thursday morning on corruption charges, according to the NY Daily News.
The New York Times first broke the news of the speaker’s pending arrest last night. Silver is a member of Cornell’s Board of Trustees, according to the university’s website.
The investigation that led to the expected charges against Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who has served as speaker for more than two decades, began after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in March abruptly shut down an anticorruption commission he had created in 2013.
Details of the specific charges to be brought against Mr. Silver were unclear on Wednesday night.
Syracuse.com’s Teri Weaver called news of the arrest a “political thunderbolt.”
“Many Democrats will be treading lightly in the wake of this news,” Weaver said.
Silver is also an “ex officio” member of the Cornell Board of Trustees due to his position as speaker, along with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Majority of the State Senate Dean Skelos.
