A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Sheldon Silver, New York state’s powerful Assembly speaker, who was found guilty of taking nearly $4 million in return for official actions in 2015. In a ruling early Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision that narrowed the types of official conduct that can form the basis of a corruption prosecution, a move that vacated former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s conviction. Silver, a 73-year-old Democrat from the Lower East Side, was sentenced to 12 years in prison but was free pending the appeal.
