Metro

Sheldon Silver wants to take his case to the Supreme Court

Shelly Silver needs a Hail Mary.

In an effort to avoid going through another long and embarrassing bribery trial, the former head of the state Assembly said he plans to take his $4 million corruption case — which was just overturned — all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Silver’s goal, according to lawyer Kelly Kramer of Mayer Brown, is to convince the highest court in the land to dismiss the charges entirely, rather than having the case sent back to the district court for retrial.

When Manhattan’s federal appeals court vacated Silver’s corruption conviction last week, it left open the door to a new trial by unanimously rejecting Silver’s claim that the feds didn’t present enough evidence to prove he took “pay-to-play” kickbacks.

The reason Silver’s seven guilty verdicts were overturned was because the jury instructions failed to take into account new rules that narrow the definition of bribery to “official acts,” like legislation.

Acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim has already said he plans to retry to the case using new jury instructions.

That prompted Silver’s attorneys to ask the Circuit Court to hold on to the case just a little while longer while Silver begs the Supreme Court to review it.