New York Lawmakers Ensnared in Multiple Corruption Cases

Not so surprising

The state of New York's legislature, whose dysfunction has long proved a spectator sport, added a new chapter Wednesday as public-corruption investigations that have touched five officials in the past month brought seven more elected officials into public scrutiny.

U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ordered the release of the names contained in a sentencing memorandum filed in Brooklyn federal court by an attorney for former state Sen. Shirley Huntley. She has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and wore a wire as she cooperated with prosecutors. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.

The disclosure of the names came amid a raucous several weeks in the Capitol in Albany, where, since April, three state lawmakers have been charged in separate federal corruption cases and another resigned from office as a result of an agreement he made with federal prosecutors to act as a cooperating witness after being secretly indicted in an unrelated civil matter.