A federal judge told the lawyer for former Queens Councilman Dan Halloran on Tuesday that he must be crazy to think anyone is buying his client’s insanity plea to charges the pagan politician pocketed bribes from state Sen. Malcolm Smith.
“It is way too late, and there is simply a woeful amount [of evidence] to support the claim,” White Plains federal Judge Kenneth Karas told Vinoo Varghese in rejecting the lawyer’s 11th-hour bid to claim insanity for Halloran’s aberrant behavior.
As The Post reported last week, Halloran — a “prince” in a pagan order that includes public floggings — tried to use a brain tumor he had surgically removed in 2012 as a cause for his insanity ploy, but prosecutors said it was nothing more than a stalling tactic to delay the trial.
The judge told Varghese, who claimed he only learned of the surgery on May 23, that the attorney should have made the insanity bid before the deadline six months ago for pre-trial motions.
He said anyone doing a simple Google search could have seen the surgery was widely reported — and that Halloran’s recovery was “going better than expected.”
Varghese afterwards said “we respect” the judge’s ruling, adding Halloran “is innocent and looks forward to finally having an opportunity to clear his name.”
Smith — one of the state’s top Democrats — was busted last year in a failed scheme to secure a spot on the Republican line for the mayoral race, allegedly by bribing Halloran, then-Bronx Republican Chairman Joseph “Jay” Savino and then-Queens GOP Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone.
A jury was selected Tuesday, and prosecutors and defense lawyers are expected to give opening statements Wednesday in what’s expected to be a three-week trial
Halloran is accused of pocketing $20,500 in cash bribes for acting as an intermediary who set up the cross-party negotiations.
The feds say Smith also plotted with crooked Rockland County developer Moses Stern, a cooperating witness, for another $40,000 in cash bribes to be paid to Tabone and Savino. Tabone allegedly received $25,000, and Savino copped a plea in November to accepting a $15,000 bribe while alleging Halloran instigated the scheme.
Halloran is also facing additional charges of allegedly pocketing $18,300 in cash bribes and $6,500 in straw-donor campaign donations for agreeing to steer $80,000 of council discretionary funding for his district to a company he believed was controlled by those who paid him the bribes.
Both Smith and Halloran face up to 45 years behind bars, while Tabone faces 25 years in the slammer.