Bruno jury leaves for weekend, no verdict
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- December
- 4
  Jurors in the federal corruption trial of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno broke for the day without reaching a verdict and will be back in court Monday. Friday was their sixth day of deliberating on eight counts of wire and mail fraud against the Rensselaer County Republican.
  Prosecutors allege that Bruno received $3.2 million between 1993 and 2006 from five individuals or groups that had or were pursuing business with state agencies or the Legislature. He had a consulting practice in addition to his part-time job as a senator.
  Bruno, 80, has spoken to the media frequently during the trial. He did not disappoint today, giving three statements outside the U.S. District Courthouse. The first two were after read-backs of testimony the jury had asked to hear again, and the third was after Judge Gary Sharpe announced jurors were leaving for the day.
  Here are some of his comments:
  “It’s apparent to me more and more and it ought to be to you, I was the first businessperson elected leader of the New York State Senate in recorded history, and as a businessperson I had a right as a part-time legislator to conduct business. That was no secret. I talked about it. I spoke about it. It was on my financial statements. So what’s going on here, I think, is that people don’t understand that a businessperson has a right to do business—some people don’t understand that, hopefully the jury does—as a part-time legislator, just like lawyers can lawyer, farmers can farmer. In the real-estate business, you can continue to be in the real-estate business, and this law, again, is so vague and it’s so broad, and that’s why the Supreme Court is taking this up next week.”
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on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 5:02 pm by Cara Matthews.
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“Farmers can farmer?” This from the guy whose “business acumen” is so acute that his “advice” is so widely sought at a hefty price. The only thing he didn’t say (yet), but intimated, is: ‘How come all these legislator/lawyers up here get to rob everything, just because they have a JD after their names?’
Farmer is actually a word used amount many farmers.
It’s Brunswickian.
Farmers can farmer?
Is this Brunswickspeech?
Bruno has done much for the community. Now, he can “FARMER” .
And Silver must be next!
I’ve got this jackass pointing at me again all weekend!