Jury convicts ex-N.Y. state senate leader of corruption

NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - Former New York State Senate majority leader Dean Skelos was found guilty of federal corruption charges by a jury on Tuesday, nearly a year after an appeals court threw out his 2015 conviction.

The federal jury in Manhattan also convicted Skelos' son, Adam, of related charges. Both defendants were convicted on all counts they faced.

Prosecutors had accused the elder Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, of using his position to pressure three companies to provide his son with consulting work, a "no-show" job and a $20,000 payment.

Both men were found guilty by a jury in December 2015. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood later sentenced Dean Skelos to five years in prison and Adam Skelos to 6-1/2 years. Both remained free on bail while they appealed their convictions.

Last September, a federal appeals court in New York threw out the convictions. The court ruled that the jury had received improper instructions in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 decision overturning the corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.

The Supreme Court found in that decision that routine political activities such as arranging meetings were not "official acts" that could be prosecuted under federal bribery law.

The federal appeals court had cited the same decision last July when it overturned the November 2015 corruption conviction of Sheldon Silver, the former New York State Assembly speaker.

Silver, a Democrat who represented Manhattan's Lower East Side, was retried and found guilty on May 11. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Jonathan Oatis)