Today's News Roundup: Corruption Deja Vu
A once powerful state senator is expected to be arrested as early as today in a corruption case that is sure to sharpen calls for political reform in Albany. An attorney for the politician, Brooklyn Democrat John L. Sampson, has not commented.
The Daily News reported over the weekend that the case involving Sampson is related to conversations that were secretly recorded by disgraced state Senator Shirley Huntley, who is being sentenced this week for stealing taxpayer money through a fake charity. Court papers disclosed on Friday in Huntley's case say she recorded conversations with seven elected officials and two other people.
The recordings, according to the court papers, "did yield evidence useful to law enforcement." The officials were not named in the papers.
In early April, two separate corruption investigations against sitting elected officials jolted the political establishment. In one of those cases, an assemblyman was wearing a wire to record his colleagues for over three years.
The arrests last month led to calls for reform to stem what appears to be a pervasive culture of corruption. Those calls have been met by proposals from good government groups, the political parties and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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