Sheldon Silver’s defense team got a state budget official to admit Monday that the research money the then-Assembly speaker funneled to a cancer doctor represented a “public good,” even though🍨 prosecutors say it was part of an “illegal quid pro quo” from which Silver reaped $3 million.
Deputy Budget Director Victor Fr🃏anco Jr. testified during cross-examination in Manhattan federal court that Silver doled out “dozens and dozens” of taxpayer-funded grants during his decades in power.
After Franco agreed that those “were all gra🐠nts to fund public services,” Silver’s lawyers focused on the $500,000 that arranged for Columbia University oncologist Dr. Robert Taub.
“You’d agree that to fund cancer research is a public good?” lawyer Justin Shur asked.
“Yes, I would,” Franco answered.