Former US Sen. Al D’Amato personally met with fellow Republican Dean Skelos to tell him his son was causing a “disruption” by not showing up to work, according to testimony Friday.
Taking the stand in Manhattan federal court to testify against his longtime friend and son Adam, D’Amato said he met with the disgraced state senator after learning Adam had gotten a job at Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers.
“I thought the senator should know about the problem. I wanted him to understand what was taking place so he might be able to remedy it, speak to his son,” D’Amato said of the April 12, 2013 meeting at Dean’s Rockville Centre office.
D’Amato, 78, who served 18 years as a US senator, owns a lobbying firm Park Strategies that had been doing work for PRI, a medical malpractice insurer, at the time.
He recalled telling Dean that his business partner Greg Serio was “very upset” about Adam’s gig as a $78,000-a-year program director at PRI.
But Dean – who had pressured friend and PRI CEO Anthony Bonomo to give Adam the job in the first place — didn’t seem all that concerned.
“He told me Adam really needed the job. His wife, I believe, was expecting. He needed the medical insurance,” he said.
Dean, 67, and Adam are charged with using the dad’s powerful position as Senate majority leader to pressure companies into giving the son work he wasn’t qualified for or didn’t perform.
US Attorney Preet Bharara, who has been a frequent fixture at the ongoing father-son trial, also showed up Friday for D’Amato’s testimony.
D’Amato also recalled how Dean asked him to meet with Adam, 33, to give him “some advice” – so he did.
“I asked if he was a registered lobbyist,” D’Amato said, noting that some of Adam’s political “activities” seemed like ones he’d be “required to register.”
But Adam took the one-on-one as an opportunity to ask D’Amato for a job at Park Strategies, a request that was promptly shut down to avoid an “appearance of impropriety,” the pol testified.
D’Amato, a former resident of Island Park, a Long Island town that is represented by Dean, took a moment to plug his pal’s senatorial career.
“His service was fabulous,” he said. “He was always attentive to the needs of constituents throughout the district.”
Outside the courthouse, D’Amato denied that he took the stand against Dean.
“I didn’t testify against my friend. I just answered the questions,” he told reporters.
Prosecutors expect to wrap up their case Monday.
Defense attorneys said Friday Adam won’t testify and will decide by Saturday night if Dean will take the stand.