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Before Lynch, Chief Judge, Torruella and Thompson, Circuit Judges.

Defendant-appellant Dianne Wilkerson, a former state senator in Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to federal charges of attempted extortion (18 U.S.C. § 1951) based on her acceptance of money offered in exchange for her favorable influence in her official capacity. Her crime involved two separate matters: the issuance of a liquor license for a new club, and the sale and development of a parcel of publicly-owned land. After she pleaded guilty, the district court received a lengthy presentence report, and conducted a thorough sentencing hearing. Before imposing sentence, the district court stated its reasons in some detail. It imposed a prison term of forty-two months, which was near the middle of the applicable range under the United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The defense takes issue with three separate conclusions that it attributes to the district court, based on the court’s statement of reasons in support of the sentence imposed. First, in relation to a prior conviction for failure to file tax returns, Wilkerson released a public statement in which she said “[f]or public officials, there should be a higher expectation about how we conduct even our personal affairs. This is a personal tax matter.”

 
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