Case 1:15-cr-00093-VEC Document 439-1 Filed 07/20/18 Page 1 of 2

EXHIBIT A
 Case 1:15-cr-00093-VEC Document 439-1 Filed 07/20/18 Page 2 of 2

July 19, 2018

The Honorable Valerie E. Caproni

United States District Court
Southern District of New York
40 Foley Square
New York, NY 10007

Dear Judge Caproni,

As you consider my sentence, please know how deeply sorry I am. I am broken-hearted
to have damaged the ability of my fellow New Yorkers to trust in their government and the
integrity of those who serve in it.

The only confidence I have left is thanks to the strength and support of my wife, who is
my rock, but we are both crumbling. I worry about my grandchildren and how they will be
treated because of me. I worry that my wife will be destitute. I worry about her trying to visit me
while continuing to be a full-time helper for her 93 year old mother. I worry about my own age
and health. I pray I will not die in prison.

The work that has been the focus of most of my life has become dirty and shameful.
Everything I ever accomplished has become a joke and a spectacle. My family’s chances of
living a normal life and my wife’s hopes of a restful retirement have all been torn apart. I hardly
sleep. I think of nothing except this case, and everything and everyone that has been affected by
it. I have read and reread the transcript of your words at my previous sentencing and I am filled
with shame.

Your Honor, when you weigh what sentence to deliver, please know that I have fully
taken this experience to heart. Please know that I have already lost so much that I can never
replace and I will always live with the knowledge of those I failed. I beg for your mercy so that I
can somehow go out into the world again to atone to everyone I have hurt.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheldon Silver