'It's my guilty pleasure': Sen. Chuck Schumer confirms spending $8,600 on Junior's cheesecake

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer admitted Sunday that he has dropped almost $9,000 on his favorite cheesecake over the years.

Holding a platter of the rich dessert aloft at a news conference, Schumer responded to a New York Post report that said Federal Election Commission filings reveal he spent $8,600 on cheesecake from Junior's, a restaurant that boasts it has the best cheesecake in New York, over the course of a decade.

"Guilty as charged," the New York Democrat confessed.

"I love Junior's cheesecake so much. It’s the best cheesecake in the world," he said. "It is made in Brooklyn. I've been going to Junior's since I've been a little boy. And it's my guilty pleasure."

Schumer said he sometimes gives the cheesecakes out as gifts or to settle bets before handing out samples to reporters.

CNN confirmed that FEC filings by the Friends of Schumer political action committee show 93 entries for Junior's cheesecake from 2009 to 2016; payments range from $46 to $516.45. The purchases were listed as "supporter acknowledgments."

If Schumer bought the "Original NY Plain Cheesecake," which Junior's says is its top seller, at its current price of $43.95, the $8,600 would have bought him 197 cheescakes.

"No matter how ya slice it, Chuck is proud of his years of support for the Downtown Brooklyn institution that is Junior’s cheesecake," Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro told The Post.

Roefaro told CNN that no taxpayer money was used to purchase the desserts.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chuck Schumer confirms he spent nearly $9,000 on Junior's cheesecake