Jonathan Bandler

jbandler@lohud.com

The federal corruption trial of state Sen. Malcolm Smith could be put on hold as authorities await translations of a Monsey developer's Yiddish conversations while he helped Smith allegedly try to bribe his way to the Republican nomination for New York City mayor.

The 28 hours of Yiddish conversations were among 9,000 calls and text messages wiretapped from Moses Stern's cellphone as he cooperated with federal authorities over 11 months in 2012 and 2013. Defense lawyers at the trial in White Plains want either a mistrial or dismissal of the charges, suggesting the recordings were improperly withheld. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas said he would decide Monday and could poll jurors on Tuesday to determine if delaying the trial would inconvenience them too much.

Smith, former city Councilman Daniel Halloran and Queens Republican Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone went on trial last week, accused of scheming to bribe Republican leaders to get the mayoral nomination for Smith, a Democrat from Queens. One was ex-Bronx GOP Chairman Joseph Savino, a Clarkstown resident and former lawyer for the town, who has pleaded guilty to accepting a $15,000 bribe.

Smith's defense is that he was entrapped by an undercover FBI agent and Stern, who was anxious for leniency on his own multimillion-dollar fraud conviction.

On Sunday, Smith's lawyer asked for all the conversations between Stern and a rabbi who introduced him to Smith. Karas ordered the government to turn over all conversations in which Smith was mentioned, despite prosecutors' arguments that Stern would not be testifying and the conversations were irrelevant.

"These communications were reviewed by agents participating in the investigation and, when the conversations were in Yiddish, the recordings were summarized by a Yiddish speaker," Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Bloom wrote to Karas on Tuesday. "As this was an undercover operation, the agents were sensitive to the issue of entrapment and took care to monitor Stern's activities with that concern in mind."

Former Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and former Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret were also charged in the case, accused in a separate corruption scam involving Stern. The developer pitched a fictitious kosher catering hall on village-owned property that he needed to justify Smith's promise of $500,000 from Albany for a road project there.

Desmaret pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud and extortion. Jasmin is scheduled to go on trial after the current trial wraps up.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.