Malcolm doesn't think he did anything wrong

From the NY Post:

Queens state Sen. Malcolm Smith wants to present a surprise witness to prove his innocence at his upcoming corruption trial — convicted ex-Queens Sen. Shirley Huntley, stunning new court papers filed Friday reveal.

Smith, who is claiming he was framed by the government, wants two secret conversations that Huntley recorded with him submitted as evidence to bolster his defense.

“These recorded conversations demonstrate that Smith had no predisposition to engage in any criminal conduct,” Smith attorney Gerald Shargel said.

“On these recordings, Huntley proposes various unlawful acts in which she hoped to ensnare Smith. Each time, Smith rejected her criminal overtures,” Shargel added.

From the Daily News:

Embattled state Sen. Malcolm Smith says there’s nothing wrong with having politicians on the “payroll.”

In papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday, Smith said there was nothing unusual or criminal about his comments, caught on an FBI wiretap, that he helped himself get to a leadership position in 2008 by spreading cash around to his Democratic colleagues.

The feds shouldn’t be allowed to use that against him because it’s not illegal, Smith’s papers say.

Why do pols talk like they're in the mafia?

From the NY Post:

State Sen. John Sampson, of Brooklyn, was arrested by the FBI this morning and charged with embezzling $440,000 between 1998 and 2008, funneling some of the cash into his unsuccessful 2005 campaign to become Brooklyn district attorney — and chillingly using a mole in the federal prosecutor's office to try and identify witnesses against him so he could arrange to "take them out."

At a press conference announcing the veteran politician's arrest, Eastern District US Attorney Loretta Lynch revealed the disturbing allegations that Sampson had a Justice Department mole in her office to keep tabs on the criminal probe into his activities — and leak information about the identify of federal informants.

"He did attempt to trade on a personal relationship with an administrative employee [of the Justice Department]...to gain information," Lynch said this morning.

The feds charge that Sampson explained to an unnamed real estate associate that he was attempting to discover the identities of federal witnesses in the Brooklyn US Attorney's mortgage fraud probe into his activities.

In one ominous exchange, Sampson allegedly told the real estate associate that if they could learn the identity of the federal informants, that "Sampson could arrange to 'take them out,'" the feds said today.

That Brooklyn federal employee has since been terminated, but Lynch declined to offer details about an internal probe that followed — saying aspects of the investigation into Sampson's alleged wrongdoing is ongoing.

Meng called informant after arrest

From the Daily News:

Shortly after he was released on $1 million bail, ex-Queens Assemblyman Jimmy Meng called the government witness who had secretly taped him soliciting a bribe to fix a criminal case, prosecutors revealed.

Meng didn't even get outside the Brooklyn Federal Court building on Tuesday night before he dialed up the snitch from his cell phone, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Seifan today. Later, an associate of Meng's also “reached out” to the witness, Seifan told Magistrate Cheryl Pollak.

Meng, who had brought along his wife, Shiao, to co-sign the bond posting two Queens properties they own, got a tongue-lashing from the judge.

“It is a violation of this bond to threaten or attempt to influence the testimony of anybody who might be a witness against you in the case,” Pollak said. “If you do it again, you’re going to jail."

Meng’s court-appointed lawyer, Michael Padden, said he had also advised the defendant to refrain.