Former Lieutenant Governor of New York acquitted
2022.12.05 12:32
Former Lieutenant Governor of New York acquitted
Budrigannews.com – A U.S. judge on Monday excused the vitally criminal includes in the central government’s defilement argument against previous New York Lieutenant Lead representative Brian Benjamin.
According to U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan, the Department of Justice failed to support the bribery, honest services wire fraud, and conspiracy charges in the indictment by claiming that there was no explicit “quid pro quo” between Benjamin and Gerald Migdol, a real estate developer in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood.
According to Oetken, Benjamin may be subject to two charges of falsification of records by prosecutors: one relating to the identities of campaign contributors and the other to a background check for the position of lieutenant governor.
Benjamin, who Governor Kathy Hochul chose in August 2021 as the No.On April 12, when the charges were made public, he quit his second job as lieutenant governor. He said he wasn’t guilty.
In Manhattan, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Damian Williams declined to comment.
Benjamin’s attorney, Barry Berke, said that Benjamin was “thankful for his vindication” and looked forward to continuing to serve New York and his Harlem community after the “flimsy and unwarranted” charges cost him his job unfairly.
When it heard arguments last week in a case involving Joseph Percoco, a former aide to Hochul’s predecessor Andrew Cuomo, the U.S. Supreme Court, which has become more skeptical of federal prosecutions of public corruption, appeared poised to impose further restrictions on such prosecutions. Percoco was a former aide to Hochul.
According to the prosecution, Benjamin gave a charity run by Migdol in Harlem, where he was a state senator at the time, a $50,000 grant in June 2019 in exchange for contributions to his unsuccessful 2020 bid to become New York City comptroller and 2020 reelection campaigns.
Oetken, on the other hand, stated that the grant’s award was not “proof” that the men had reached an agreement; rather, the government had only “implied” it.
Migdol cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud charges.
