New York Republicans on Monday evening urged President Donald Trump to not pardon disgraced former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in his final hours in office.
Silver, according to The New York Times on Monday night, is among those being considered for a pardon by the president. Silver, a longtime and unquestioned ruler in the Assembly, was found guilty on charges related to bribery and fraud.
Silver, a Democrat, is also anathema to most Republicans in New York, a symbol of downstate power concentrated in one man.
Some of the president's biggest allies in New York, a deep blue state, were also among Silver's most reliable critics over the last decade, including 2010 gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino, and former Rep. Chris Collins, who received a pardon from Trump last month.
Make no mistake, disgraced former NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver deserves no clemency or pardon. Silver deserves to actually serve the jail time that he was sentenced for selling the incredible power he yielded to enrich himself. He was a corrupt and dishonest politician.
— New York GOP (@NewYorkGOP) January 19, 2021
"Make no mistake, disgraced former NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver deserves no clemency or pardon," the state GOP committee wrote on Twitter. "Silver deserves to actually serve the jail time that he was sentenced for selling the incredible power he yielded to enrich himself. He was a corrupt and dishonest politician."
Steve McLaughlin, the Republican Rensselaer County executive, wrote a Silver pardon would send the wrong message and he should stay in prison.
"The very idea of this low life who enriched himself while in office is repulsive," McLaughlin wrote, "and sends the message that crime does indeed pay."