By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter
The Supreme Court sided with a former aide to then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Joseph Percoco, who argued that a federal anti-bribery statute should not have been used to convict him.
the courts opinion continues a recent trend of reducing the government’s ability to prosecute defendants under certain public corruption statutes.
The case tested the reach of the so-called “honest services” wire fraud statute that makes it a crime for public employees to defraud the government.
The court’s decision sends the case back to the lower court and could lead to the reversal of Percoco’s conviction.
In recent years, judges have narrowed the scope of the law in high-profile cases involving Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO and former Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell.
Percoco has other convictions against him, but the court was only considering one of them based on “honest services.”
The CNN Wire
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