MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT — Secret — and seemingly damning — evidence related to ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's corruption case will be unsealed Friday morning, a judge ruled Thursday.
The documents, which seem to detail an interaction between Silver and an unnamed person who is some kind of public figure, were not made public through Silver's trial — and Silver's lawyers, as well as the attorney for the other person involved, have been fighting to keep the information sealed.
But in Manhattan Federal Court Thursday afternoon, after hearing arguments from all involved, Judge Valerie Caproni made her decision final, saying "the public has a right to know the fact and factors I'm considering in sentencing."
The information in the documents, which includes at least one transcript of a conversation, was delicately tiptoed around by Silver and the unnamed person's lawyers to not reveal the secret evidence, as they argued for their clients.
Silver's attorney, Steven Molo, made clear that he thought the documents were not relevant to the sentencing and that the judge had plenty of evidence that was debated through the jury trial — which ended in conviction on charges of money laundering, fraud and extortion for Silver — to use for her decision on prison time.
Abbe Lowell, the attorney for the unnamed person, called Sealed Party A in court papers, was solely focused on keeping his client's identity private, and felt as though a simple name redaction was not enough to keep the person's privacy protected.
Caproni, however, seemed not wholly concerned about complete protection of privacy since she said that Sealed Party A would be considered a public figure, and thus their involvement was also pertinent for the public.
Lowell also argued that he had a pending appeal before the Second Circuit on the unsealing of the documents — and that his client was not a public figure when the inflammatory conversation took place.
But the appellate court also gave Caproni the ability to use her discretion if she felt the information was pertinent to the sentencing, which she said she did.
She said, ultimately, Silver's image to the public is a "mixed bag" — he both has been convicted of graft and corruption, but also is known to many as doing good for the community and having "a long history of public service."
The public, then, has a right to know everything she's considering when it comes to his sentence — and the sealed evidence is "not one of his better moments," she said.
Silver's sentencing is scheduled for May 3.
He faces more than 100 years in prison for his conviction in November related to two bribery schemes in which he earned millions in kickbacks by trading political favor for money.
The documents are set to be released on PACER, federal court electronic court records system, at 9 a.m.
