Yet another New York politician has found himself on the wrong side of the law. State Senator John L. Sampson was arrested by F.B.I. agents Monday morning following an investigation on corruption.
According to The New York Times the exact charges the former leader of the Democratic caucus are still unknown, but maybe revealed at a news conference by the U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Loretta E. Lynch, scheduled for later today.
Sampson, a democrat who serves Brooklyn, was arrested less than a week after prosecutors revealed that former Senator Shirley Huntley had recorded numerous other senators in an attempt to gain leniency in her own corruption trial.
According to The San Francisco Chronicle, the recordings revealed a senator brokering a deal that for Huntley that resulted in Huntley receiving $1,000. While the senator in the recording was not identified Sampson's arrest obviously fuels speculation that it may have been him.
Huntley, 74, will be facing up to two years in prison thanks to her plea deal. While wearing a wire Huntley was able to record six elected officials, a consultant and another staffer, according to the New York Post.
Sampson is the just the latest to go down in what appears to be an ever widening corruption investigation by the F.B.I. Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara are intent on eliminating political corruption within the Empire State, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Recently Nelson Castro, a state Assemblyman, resigned after admitting that he had also made recordings of other politicians in order to temper the charges against him in his own perjury trial. Those recordings led to Eric Stevenson, Assemblyman from the Bronx, being arrested.
Sampson, a lawyer, had been under some suspicion due to the relationship he had with one of his clients, Edul Ahmad, according to The New York Times. Ahmad had been involved in a loan scheme involving a political official.
Sources told the New York Post that Sampson had planned on turning himself in this morning.
