NEW YORK (JTA) — Former longtime New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been disbarred.
Silver, who is Jewish and was convicted in federal court in November on seven corruption charges, on Tuesday officially lost his license to practice law. A state appeals court ruled the conviction was just cause for the action.
New York state attorneys are automatically disbarred when convicted of a state felony. If the federal felony is also considered a felony under state law, it triggers automatic disbarment.
“While the federal felony need not be a mirror image of the New York felony, the two crimes must be essentially similar,” the appeals court judges wrote, adding that Silver’s federal conviction was equal to a state conviction on extortion charges.
Also Tuesday, a federal appeals court rejected Silver’s petition to keep classified the documents from an Oct. 16 hearing, the Daily News reported. Silver had argued that the release of the documents could harm his appeal of the conviction.
Silver is scheduled to be sentenced on April 13.
