January 30, 2015 09:04 AM UTC

At Least It's Not Your State Legislature...

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• by: Phoenix Rising

Well, then. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara has set his sights pretty high.  After indicting NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver the other week, news is leaking out today that his next target is NY State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau). If true, it would expose the breadth of the corruption in the NY State Legislature – Senate and Assembly, Democrat and Republican – with two of the "three men in a room" who control NY politics under indictment.

While Bharara's office won't confirm the news, Bharara has made it clear that Silver's indictment was only the tip of the iceberg. After he announced Silver's indictment he said "Stay tuned," and he's also been quoted as saying "If ever there was a moment for real reform, I think it’s now […] If there was ever a time for New Yorkers to show their trademark impatience with the status quo and to show it loudly, I submit now’s a good time for that." Clearly he believes that the corruption on Albany is both deep and broad.

Could this lead back to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office? It was Gov. Cuomo who suddenly disbanded the commission investigating corruption, and Cuomo counts both Skelos and Silver as allies. At the very least it sounds like he tried to bury the truth.