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First Silver, Now Skelos: Preet Bharara Takes on Albany Corruption

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara announces charges against three individuals for offenses related to computer hacking on November 10, 2015 in New York City.

Dean Skelos, the former State Senate Majority Leader, and his son, were both found guilty of all corruption charges. Earlier this year, former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was charged with corruption as well.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, says it’s not every day that you have the leaders of both houses convicted within a few days of each other, calling it "a moment to reflect on what that means."

"Everyone has their part to play in making sure we have honest and clean government...the public has a role and the press has a role, but also the politicians themselves have a role in self-policing. Any institution can have bad apples...but the first line of defense against bad conduct is the institution itself. And it seems, based on Senator Avella's testimony and a lot of other information, that they're doing a pretty poor job of self-policing."

He didn't want to advocate any specific changes, but he did say, "It's a little bit harder to get away with bribery or extortion if there are more strict limits on outside income."

U.S. Attorney Bharara also said nobody should be surprised to learn that when people in power go unchallenged for a long time, corruption can flourish.

"I don’t think there’s ever been at time in the history of government, anywhere, going back to the Greeks, where the inability to challenge the leadership in any way, shape or form without being completely banished has ever been good for government."