Supreme Court Overturns Multiple Corruption Convictions in New York

The US Supreme Court has thrown out the fraud convictions of two public officials in New York, Joseph Percoco and Louis Ciminelli, in a pair of unanimous rulings. The court considered whether Percoco could be prosecuted for conduct that took place after he resigned his government position to run Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 re-election campaign. The court also ruled that the prosecutors’ legal theory in Ciminelli’s case was invalid. These rulings are the latest in a series of setbacks for prosecutors from a court that has become increasingly skeptical of federal charges of public corruption in state government.