A Brooklyn federal judge on Friday denied former state Sen. John Sampson’s bid for acquittal on the two top charges against him — obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI.
The former Brooklyn legislator was convicted by a jury last July on three of nine counts. He faces up to 20 years at his sentencing May 4.
Prosecutors said he took a $188,500 loan from a shady business partner to cover up money he had stolen from foreclosure deals.
Sampson argued that he never lied about seeing a check register of the loan because it was only a copy. Sampson tried to say his statement was “literally true” — an argument that Judge Dora Irizarry called “not persuasive.”