At oral arguments Thursday for former New York state Sen. Dean Skelos’ appeal against his 2015 bribery conviction, a prosecutor admitted that the government “went too far” by stating at trial that arranging a meeting between a state department and a company who hired his son constituted an “official act” worthy of a conviction.
Skelos, who was Republican majority leader and one of the so-called “Three Men in a Room” that wielded ultimate authority over the state’s key policy decisions, was convicted before Southern District Judge Kimba Wood alongside his son Adam Skelos of eight counts relating to three separate schemes, which included bribery, extortion and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.
