ALBANY — FBI agents raided the offices and home of Queens Assemblyman William Scarborough on Wednesday as part of an investigation he blamed on a Post report about his travel expenses.
“I’m still in kind of a state of shock,” he said after federal agents carted off boxes of documents, calendars, his smartphone and “just about everything.”
Proclaiming himself “totally innocent,” the assemblyman rapped The Post for siccing authorities on him by reporting that he collected expenses for being in Albany on a Sunday in 2011 when, in fact, he was in his Queens district that day.
Legislators were entitled to $165 a day for meals and lodging every day they were in the capital. The sum was raised to $172 in October 2013.
In the October 2012 article, The Post said Scarborough submitted vouchers claiming $825 in reimbursements for spending five nights in a row in Albany, from March 13 through 17, 2011.
But news accounts at the time said he was in Jamaica, Queens from 6 to 9 p.m. on March 17, 2011 — a Sunday — for a town-hall meeting.
“I may very well have gone to that meeting, turned around and gone back to Albany that night,” Scarborough said at the time.
On Wednesday, he blasted the article as a “hit job.”
“My belief is that is what triggered this,” he told reporters, referring to the Post story and Wednesday’s FBI raid. “These are things I believe are misinterpreted or misunderstood..”
Records compiled by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli show Scarborough racked up some of the largest “per diems” in town, pulling in $30,006 in 2011, $25,038 in 2012 and $18,522 in 2013.
Scarborough said he cooperated with authorities who told him “there might be indictments and I would not be one of them.”
Scarborough said he’s now worried how the raid will play with his constituents.
“In this business, you are guilty until proven innocent,” he said.
News of the incident made its way through the Capitol as lawmakers headed into session. Assembly Speaker Silver said he knew nothing about the raid.
Scarborough was not arrested but says his next course of action is hiring an attorney.
“This is just stunning to me but it is what it is. I have to deal with it,” he said.
H claimed he was awake when FBI agents knocked on his door at 5:45 a.m., adding, “I was taking ibuprofen for pain, and this did not help.”