As astonishing as it was to see Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the New York Assembly, surrender to the F.B.I. on corruption charges Thursday morning, it is even more incredible that he can choose to go on serving in his job while he defends himself against bribery and kickback charges involving millions of dollars.  In New York’s sleazy political world, where fairly obvious corruption is not just tolerated but encouraged by ethics laws that barely deserve the name, Mr. Silver does not have to relinquish his power even temporarily. That, in fact, is something he should have done two years ago after the disclosure of his role in silencing a sexual harassment complaint against another lawmaker.  Mr. Silver told reporters at the federal courthouse, “I hope I’ll be vindicated,” and his lawyers called the charges “meritless.” He will have a chance to defend himself in this case. But the system that allows New York lawmakers to engorge their bank accounts in ways that are at best dubious and at worst corrupt deserves no defense, and Mr. Silver is not just part of it. He leads it.  The five-count complaint accuses the powerful Mr. Silver of receiving bribes and kickbacks masked as legitimate income earned as a private lawyer. The charges include mail fraud as part of a scheme to refer clients with state business secretly to law firms that then paid Mr. Silver in substantial referral fees. In some cases, Mr. Silver then rewarded these clients with tax breaks, legislative benefits or even state funds he controlled as Assembly speaker, the complaint charges.  In one circular scheme that enriched all parties, Mr. Silver, federal investigators say, convinced a physician to refer asbestos cases to him at his law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg. The law firm then paid Mr. Silver for his referral services, and Mr. Silver directed $500,000 from a secret $8.5 million slush fund to the doctor’s research facility. (The doctor is not named in the complaint and has agreed to testify for the prosecutors.) Mr. Silver’s total income reported from Weitz & Luxenberg is more than $650,000 a year, at least according to what he has disclosed. That’s on top of his government salary of $121,000, which alone is more than most Americans make.  Mr. Silver is also facing charges of failing to report what could be a substantial amount of income from a small real estate firm. His undisclosed income reportedly came from legal cases involving exemptions to real estate taxes — an area beyond Mr. Silver’s legal expertise but within his sphere of influence in Albany. In a press briefing Thursday afternoon, United States Attorney Preet Bharara accused Mr. Silver of using his “titanic political power” to pocket these millions and hide the money in six different banks. At this time, the courts have seized $3.8 million of Mr. Silver’s assets, he said.  The investigation of Mr. Silver by Mr. Bharara was strengthened by files collected by the anticorruption Moreland Commission in Albany, which deserves credit for not sparing such a powerful political figure. Gov. Andrew Cuomo created the commission with great fanfare and then abruptly shut it down last year to get a budget deal approved by legislators.  Mr. Silver was among those who fought subpoenas from the commission demanding a list of clients and descriptions of services provided for pay, according to the indictment. Within two weeks after Mr. Cuomo shut down the commission, Mr. Bharara took control over its files and unfinished investigations. The case against Mr. Silver could be the first of several against Albany lawmakers. Or as Mr. Bharara hinted on Thursday, “Stay tuned.”  This dramatic turn of events could be the start of a wholesale cleanup of Albany’s appalling political culture, something voters have wished for and deserved for many years. But it’s only a start.  A version of this editorial appears in print on January 23, 2015, on page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: Speaker Silver Should Step Down. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The charges are astounding, and so is the idea that the speaker would try to hold onto his post.