U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe refused to dismiss former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s corruption case, setting up the potential for another trial for the Rennselaer County Republican.

Bruno’s first convictions were tossed out when the Supreme Court gave an intrepertation of the “theft of honest services” charge that Bruno had been initally found guilty of in 2009.

But federal prosecutors brought new charges against the 83-year-old ex-senator, and a federal appellate court ruled prosecutors can move forward with a quid pro quo case against him.

Bruno’s lawyers argued unsuccessfully to Sharpe that a new trial constitutes a violation of the Constitution’s double jeopardy provision, but Sharpe disagreed.

“… the exception is too broad insofar as it enables a defendant to delay the timely administration of justice by simply raising double jeopardy,” Sharpe wrote in the ruling.

Bruno’s lawyers have up to two weeks to appeal the ruling based on the double jeopardy argument.

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