Former state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno should check his stocking for a generous $2.4 million gift from the state after beating federal corruption charges in May.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman begrudgingly approved the reimbursement Wednesday after determining state employees are entitled to reimbursement for their legal costs, if the charges are connected to their government duties.
"The state is constrained to reimburse the eligible expenditures made on Mr. Bruno's behalf by his campaign committee, because the Public Officers Law makes it a 'duty' of the state to reimburse all eligible expenditures, regardless of who incurs the expenditure," Chief Deputy Attorney General Harlan Levy wrote in a letter to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Bruno's attorneys were joyous.
"It's a merry Christmas!" said Bruno lawyer E. Stewart Jones. "I'm delighted that we have reached this point, even though it is six months later than it should have been."
Jones said he had not been expecting the state to pay up before Election Day.
"People would complain about it," he said. "The timing is a political decision. The obligation to pay is obviously legal."
Schneiderman spokesman Matt Mittenthal said resolving payment with Bruno's attorneys was a complicated process and denied that politics played any role.
A DiNapoli spokeswoman said the comptroller will audit the expenses.
After his retirement, the veteran Republican lawmaker was convicted in 2009 on charges that he collected more than $3 million in fees from companies seeking state contracts, grants and pension-fund business.
He spent more than five years fighting the charges, and his conviction was overturned.
He survived a second indictment when a jury dismissed charges that he received $20,000 a month in consulting fees from a telecommunications firm in exchange for favorable treatment in Albany.
He called on the state to pay his legal costs after that decision.
"I want what is legally, lawfully due me, and I hope Eric Schneiderman . . . is just fair and objective and not in any way political — and I don't expect that of him," he told The Post's Fred Dicker in a radio interview.
A source close to Bruno said the former senator is "pleased with the finding, which was not unexpected because the law on this matter is very clear."
Bruno's happy ending is in contrast to other cases of state corruption.
Former Assembly members Eric Stevenson and Gabriela Rosa were convicted in bribery and marriage- fraud scams.
Former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith of Queens faces a federal trial for allegedly attempting to bribe his way onto the GOP ballot for mayor in 2013.
Queens Assemblyman William Scarborough was charged with allegedly swiping $40,000 in travel reimbursements, and Sens. Greg Ball and George Maziarz chose not to seek re-election amid accusations they used campaign cash to pay for vacations and personal expenses.
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