Close friend, top lobbyist helped feds take down Sheldon Silver

The New York Post reports:

A veteran lobbyist with longstanding ties to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver helped the feds bust the powerful pol in a multimillion-dollar bribery and kickback scheme, sources told The Post on Friday.

Brian Meara, 63, is the person referred to in court papers as “the Lobbyist” who revealed that Silver told him “there was nothing to worry about” regarding the speaker secretly sharing in legal fees paid by Meara’s client, billionaire developer Leonard Litwin, the sources said.

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara has said those payments to Silver — from a law firm run by Silver’s former Assembly counsel — were one way he “illegally monetized his public position” through a corruption scam that dates back to at least 2000.

Meara, 63, has been friends with Silver for decades and is among the state’s most powerful lobbyists, with offices in both Manhattan and Albany.

Sheldon, Sheldon, Sheldon.