The argument was crystallized in an April dismissal motion filed by lawyers for Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, saying the conduct alleged by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara amounted to “not actual federal crimes but rather longstanding features of New York state government that the U.S. Attorney finds distasteful.”... “That’s the way the system is supposed to operate,” Mr. DerOhannesian said.
Prosecutors have dismissed arguments that their criminal allegations describe acceptable government work. In response to Mr. Silver’s attorneys describing the charges as merely features of his job, Manhattan federal prosecutors wrote that that would mean New York had “legalized the kind of quid-pro-quo bribery” at the core of federal anticorruption laws.
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