“Senator Smith drew up the game plan and Councilman Halloran essentially quarterbacked it by finding party chairmen who were wide open to receive bribes,” Bharara said.
It’s a stunning and wide-ranging public corruption scandal.
Six highly-placed politicians are accused of using bribery to rig this year’s New York City mayoral race.
There were three distinct parts to the public corruption and bribery scandal, but in all three money flowed freely and, at times, city and state funds — your tax dollars — paid the freight, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported Tuesday.
“The charges we unsealed today demonstrate once again that a ‘show me the money’ culture seems to pervade every level of New York government,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The six defendants nailed by the feds Tuesday certainly represent many levels of government. State Sen. Malcolm Smith, a Democrat, allegedly wanted to rig the 2013 mayoral race so he could run as a Republican. Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran reportedly helped arrange the bribes to buy Smith a waiver, and two Republican officials had their hands out, reportedly saying “show me the money and the waiver is yours.”
[…]
