ALBANY, N.Y. — Federal prosecutors are appealing a judge’s decision to dismiss bribery charges against former New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin.
The U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York filed a notice of appeal shortly after District Court Judge Paul Oetken determined Monday that prosecutors failed to show the fallen politician steered $50,000 in state funds to a nonprofit directly in exchange for fraudulent contributions to his failed city comptroller campaign.
Oetken wrote in his decision that the indictment filed against the disgraced Democrat, who resigned as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s right hand man in April following his arrest, “fails to allege an explicit quid pro quo.”
Benjamin is still facing two falsification-of-records charges because he allegedly lied on campaign forms and vetting documents he filled out before being sworn in as Hochul’s second-in-command.
Hochul became governor in August 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. She named Benjamin, who was serving as a state senator representing Harlem at the time, as her lieutenant governor shortly after taking office.
The New York Daily News first reported that Benjamin provided incorrect information on a background check he submitted to the governor’s office and state police as part of the vetting process to become lieutenant governor.
On his initial background form, Benjamin reported he hadn’t been contacted by “law enforcement or a regulatory body concerning any possible legal, regulatory, ethical, or campaign finance, infraction or violation or investigation.”
He had, however, already been contacted by the state Elections Board over his use of campaign funds, and was aware that the Manhattan district attorney’s office and federal prosecutors were already looking at donations made to his comptroller campaign.
Benjamin, just days before his arrest, told the Daily News that he had done nothing wrong and “followed the process.” Hochul, meanwhile, said she was blindsided by the allegations against Benjamin.
In the indictment filed against the 45-year-old, prosecutors laid out how Benjamin, while serving as a state senator and running for city comptroller, allegedly steered a $50,000 state grant to a nonprofit run by Harlem real estate developer Gerald Migdol in exchange for donations to his failed campaign.
Migdol was arrested in November 2021 and charged with arranging dozens of donations to be made to Benjamin’s campaign in the names of people who had not authorized the payments.
While the indictment against Benjamin shows a detailed timeline of meetings held between the two, Oetken in his decision granting dismissal of the bribery charges wrote that prosecutors failed to meet the high bar set by previous cases decided by the Supreme Court and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Particularly in the context of a criminal case, ignoring repeated and clear — indeed, explicit — rulings by the 2nd Circuit on the legal standard governing criminal liability for campaign contributions would be inappropriate as well as unfair,” he wrote.
The appeal from the prosecutors will now go to the 2nd Circuit.
Hochul won a full term in office last month with Lt. Gov. Antonio DelGado on the ticket after convincing lawmakers to make an eleventh-hour adjustment removing Benjamin from June’s Democratic primary ballot.
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