Albany, NY – Former Senate Majority Leader Bruno To Be Indicted In Corruption Charges

Albany, NY – A federal grand jury investigating former state Senate Majority Joseph L. Bruno is expected to vote today to indict Bruno on public corruption charges, according to numerous sources with knowledge of the case.

Grand jurors have assembled inside the federal courthouse in downtown Albany. Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew T. Baxter, who is based in Syracuse, arrived at Albany’s federal building just after 10 a.m. carrying two large briefcases and an easel.

The work of the grand jury is secret; however, a possible press statement or press conference is being discussed by federal officials for later today.

Bruno, who reigned for years as one of the most powerful lawmakers in New York, is expected to be charged with using his office to deprive the public of the honest services of government, though the details of the charges being considered remain a closely held secret.

Action today by a federal grand jury in Albany likely marks the culmination of a three-year FBI investigation into the shadowy public and private dealings of the Brunswick Republican who rose through the ranks of state government and became one of the Capital Region’s most iconic political leaders.

Bruno, 79, who retired from his state Senate seat in July after 32 years in the post, will likely be asked to make his initial appearance on the indictment before a U.S. magistrate.

The investigation had dogged Bruno during the last two years of his political career as information surfaced publicly about the FBI’s deep foray into his real-estate dealings, investments, political decisions and his ownership and breeding of thoroughbred horses. Bruno’s ties to labor unions, and his secretive work as a private business consultant for an unknown number of private clients, including a Connecticut investment firm, were at the heart of the probe.

The charges expected to be detailed in the indictment are believed to be built entirely on an ”honest services” provision of federal statutes that has been used repeatedly by federal prosecutors to take down some of the nation’s most corrupt government officials and lobbyists. The broadly written law, which was inserted into federal statutes 20 years ago by Congress, prohibits public officials from using the mail or interstate communications to deprivethe public of an inherent “right to honest services.”