The U.S. Supreme Court turned down the appeal from the former speaker of the New York state Assembly without comment, but two Republican justices dissented. Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver leaves U.S. District Court in Manhattan on July 20 after he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in the corruption case that drove him from power. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) WASHINGTON (CN) — Having failed to secure clemency from former President Donald Trump, convicted New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver lost his bid Monday for a Supreme Court reversal. The 76-year-old Democrat only began his nearly seven-year sentence for corruption over the summer, five years after the charges of which he was eventually convicted forced his resignation from the New York Legislature where he had reigned for over two decades.