Here’s the moment state Sen. John Sampson realized the game was u🧜p — when prosecutors say his scheme to cover up his embezzlement🎀 of funds from foreclosure deals came crashing down.
The secretly recorded scene — in which the Brooklyn Democrat visibly deflates during a meeting with an associate 🐬in Queens — was played for jurors at his obstruction-ofꦍ-justice trial in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday.
T🦋he silent video shows Sampson shaken after Edul Ahmad hands him a sheet from a check register at a Howard Bea𝔉ch eatery in 2012.
The sheet is a key piece of evidence in the feds’ case against Sampson and threatens to send him to prison for t☂w﷽o decades.
They say it proves he took a $188,500 loan from Ahmad to cover up the shortfall in foreclosure dea✅ls the politician was appointed to oversee.
What Sam🌠pson didn’t know as he sa𓃲t on a couch with Ahmad in the lounge of the Vetro restaurant was that Ahmad was cooperating with the feds after being charged himself with mortgage fraud.
Undercover federal agent♛s were posted around the restaurant.
“He was distressed,” said one of the feds, FBI Special Agent Courtney Capalupo, when asked ab💙ou🌟t Sampson’s body language.
After staring at the paper, Sampson slumps and silently looks to the ceiling. He later removes his gla💙sses and massages his 𒅌head.
“That’s a problem, man,” Sampson was heard telling Ahmad in audio played ear🐈lier in the trial.
“You know, because thenꦇꦕ this is just like, opens up a can of worms,” Sampson adds.
Ahmad asked Sampson what he should do if the fed🐻s asked for or discovered the document.
“I don’t think you show it to them,” Sampson said. “Don’t say you don’t have it. Just say you don’t kn🉐ow. ꦗI don’t want you to lie — just say you don’t know.”
After another look at th🔯e paper, he rests his head on his fist. He repeatedly stares at it.
“He held it in his hand for a longer period of time as he continued talking and at the end of the meeting, he put the piece of paper in his breast pocket,”💖 Capalupo testified.
He di𒈔dn’t touch a drink in a tumbler in front of him.
Judge Dora Irizarry had tossed embezzlement charges against Sampson before trial, citing a statute of limitations. But the law🦋maker still faces 20 years in prison if convicted of trying to cover up the alleged foreclosure scam.
Sampson’s attorney, Nick Akerman, has been hammering away at Ahmad’s credibil🐓ity to rescue his client, claiming Ahmad repeatedly lied about his education on official forms and committed other ethical breaches.