Bruno Corruption Trial Kicks Off

The corruption trial of former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno kicked off this week, with both sides making opening statements that "presented vastly differing views" of his conduct, the New York Times reported.

Most recently, several current and former New York labor officials testified yesterday that their unions' investments with a Connecticut firm were not influenced by the promise of legislative muscle from Bruno. The laborers' testimony came on day four of Bruno's trial as the government continues building its case that Bruno used his Senate position as leverage to get clients for an investment firm that paid him $1.37 million, according to the Albany Times-Union, which is also preparing a special report with updates of the trial proceedings.

Earlier Thursday, former Teamster's union president Howard ''Whitey'' Bennett testified that his union received a series of grants for a truck driver training program in the years after they began investing with Wright at Bruno's suggestion. Still, Bennett said the decision to hire the firm was a competitive process that involved input from lawyers, financial advisers and pension trustees, including himself, the Times-Union said.

In her opening statement Monday, Elizabeth C. Coombe, an assistant United States attorney, said Bruno “exploited his official position for his own personal enrichment and gain” and often acted to “conceal and disguise” his many conflicts of interest, according to the New York Times article. But Bruno’s lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, called him “a hard-working, honest public servant who was elected and re-elected 16 times” and said there were “no exchanges of any kind of official action for any payment.”

The Times said the trial will proceed "with a who’s who of state lawmakers and lobbyists expected to take the stand over the next few weeks."

Bruno, who led the Senate for 14 years, was indicted in January on charges that he reaped millions of dollars from companies seeking business from the state or from labor unions.