Even as she got a year in jail for political corruption, Shirley Huntley dropped a bombshell allegation yesterday about the state’s top lawman — her lawyer told the sentencing judge that the disgraced ex-state senator has informed federal investigators about “corruption involving” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Huntley also warned the FBI that there is “a mole” in Schneiderman’s office who has leaked information, said defense lawyer Sally Butler in Brooklyn federal court.
The claims were immediately blasted by Schneiderman’s office as desperate “lies” by a “criminal.”
Huntley’s lawyer made the shocking allegations against Schneiderman, a former Manhattan state senator, as she detailed Huntley’s continued cooperation with the FBI since last year in a bid to win leniency.
Butler told Judge Jack Weinstein that Huntley “came at her own peril” with the information about Schneiderman to the FBI at the same time that the attorney general was investigating her for helping rip off yet another nonprofit.
“She also told the FBI about corruption involving Eric Schneiderman,” Butler said, as well as “a mole in the Attorney General’s Office.”
Whether Huntley’s claims are true or merely false, vindictive accusations could not be determined.
Last year, Huntley secretly recorded Queens state Sen. José Peralta at the direction of the FBI, according to court documents filed by Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
She tried without success to get him to talk about allegedly illicit dealings with Schneiderman when Schneiderman was a state senator, a source told The Post.
Peralta, who is now running for Queens borough president, is currently under investigation by the FBI, according to a letter filed by prosecutors with the judge.
Peralta denies any wrongdoing.
Federal prosecutor Paul Tuchman told Weinstein that while Huntley had provided “substantial assistance” on probes of political corruption, investigators were not able to corroborate all of her claims.
In a filing detailing the useful evidence provided by Huntley, the feds made no mention of Schneiderman.
Schneiderman spokesman Damien LaVera said, “Attorney General Schneiderman’s commitment to rooting out political corruption is the reason he was the first prosecutor to indict Shirley Huntley, and why she is going to prison for lying and stealing.
“It’s no surprise that the criminal is angry at the prosecutor, but Huntley’s lies should not distract from the fact that today justice was served.”
One of Huntley’s former aides, Councilman Ruben Wills, is no longer being probed by the feds after she secretly taped him.
But the AG’s Office said it is still investigating Wills in connection with a missing $32,000 in state funding that Huntley had steered to a nonprofit he headed.