Embattled state Sen. Malcolm Smith claimed he had fellow pols “on the payroll” long before he got busted in a scheme to bribe his way onto the New York City mayoral ballot, the feds say.
Court papers filed ahead of Smith’s upcoming Manhattan corruption trial say he unwittingly told an FBI informant that he bought his way into power as majority leader by doling out campaign cash to other senators in 2008.
Smith also outlined his “twofold” ambitions to run for both mayor and Senate majority leader in 2012, saying that “he planned to employ the same process again” to achieve the latter goal, the Manhattan federal court filing says.
“Smith said he spent ‘like 50 or 60’ thousand dollars in payments to other members to buy their votes for majority leader in 2008, a process he again called putting them ‘on the payroll,’ ” prosecutors wrote.
“In particular, he said that he contributed $1,000 per week to the campaigns of approximately 10 members of the state Senate during the last [weeks] of their elections.”
The papers don’t identify the recipients. Records show Smith gave $78,500 to Democratic Senate candidates between Oct. 1 and Nov. 4, 2008.
The recipients included six incumbents, with then-Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck) pocketing the largest share of $11,500 for her campaign. Since-ousted Bronx state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. — currently locked up for corruption — got $500.
Among the challengers, Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Queens) received $6,000.
Democrats took control of the Senate during that election, and unanimously picked Smith as majority leader the next year.
According to the feds, Smith made his damning claim during an Aug. 8, 2012, conversation with a cooperating witness.
Prosecutors want to present evidence of Smith’s alleged payoffs at his upcoming corruption trial, where he’s accused of trying to bribe city Republican leaders to get on the GOP line for mayor last year.
Smith lawyer Gerald Shargel said his statement to the informant “was ripped out of context and has nothing whatever to do with the charges.”
Shargel also insisted that Smith “did not ‘buy’ the majority or any other leadership position.”
Of the 2008 victors who got campaign cash from Smith, only Addabbo and state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) remain in office.
Oppenheimer said on Sunday that “it is nonsense” to think she exchanged her vote for the contribution.
None of the other lawmakers who got contributions from Smith returned calls for comment.