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Just hours before State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno announced he wouldn’t be running for reelection in the fall, the FBI seized more than 30 boxes of records from his office. The Post reports that the files date back to 1995, and the seizure is part of the federal probe into his controversial consulting business. Though Bruno insisted that he’s “never been accused of anything and [doesn’t] expect to be,” his friend James Featherstonhaugh, an Albany lobbyist, told the Times that the probe had taken a toll on Bruno. In fact, the Daily News reports that he had recently asked the FBI if his stepping down from his position would take the heat off. “There was no deal” in the end, a source said.
Bruno will be replaced by Southern Nassau County senator Dean Skelos, 60, who was voted in yesterday by his fellow Republicans.
G.O.P. Senators in Albany Elect a New Majority Leader [NYT]
Joe Bruno Wanted to Know If Quitting Would Affect FBI Probe [NYDN]
BRUNO FILES SEIZED [NYP]
Related: The Un-Reformed: Geoffrey Gray’s Profile of Joe Bruno [NYM]
