new york Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin was fired Tuesday hours after he was arrested for federal bribery charges in connection with an alleged scheme to make illegal contributions to his 2021 New York City auditor’s campaign.
“I have immediately accepted the dismissal of Brian Benjamin,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement issued through her office. “While the legal process is going on, it’s clear to both of us that he can not continue to serve as lieutenant governor. New Yorkers absolutely deserve trust in their government, and I will work every day to deliver them.”
Benjamin, who was named last year to be Hochul’s second-in-command after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation has been hampered in recent months by federal investigations into his past campaign for control and his direction of public funds while he was a state senator for his current role for four years.
Benjamin is now accused of directing public funds to a Harlem investor, Gerald Migdol, in exchange for fraudulent contributions to Benjamin’s campaign for city governor last year, according to a federal indictment arising from an investigation by the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York and New York City’s Department of Investigations.
“This is a simple story of corruption,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news release Tuesday.
The five-count charge accuses Benjamin of bribery, wire fraud, forgery of records and related crimes.
Requests for comment from the office of Benjamin and his lawyers, James Gatta and William Harrington, were not immediately returned.
When asked about the arrest of Benjamin at a press conference in connection with a shooting in the New York City subway system Tuesday, Hochul missed the question, saying she would release a statement. Her other scheduled events on Tuesday afternoon were canceled.
Benjamin pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charges in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and was released on $ 250,000 bail.
What led to the indictment?
Migdol was charged in November with conspiracy to commit illegal campaign contributions to a controller candidate’s campaign, but the candidate was not named in that indictment. It was widely believed that it was Benjamin at the time.
Last fall, federal officials called Benjamin’s former campaign advisers for financial records and communications between Migdol and the campaign. More recently, federal officials have called on the State Senate, seeking information on Benjamin’s direction of discretionary state funding in his former Senate district.
These developments were first reported by The New York Daily News and the New York Times.
What exactly is Benjamin being accused of?
The current indictment comes from an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In it, Benjamin is accused of colluding with a real estate developer – like Migdol, who is referred to in the document as “CC-1,” as Campaigner 1, in order to obtain illegal contributions to his failed campaign for New York City Comptroller, from its at least 2019 to 2021, according to the indictment.
In return for these contributions, Benjamin, through his influence as state senator for the 30th District of Manhattan at the time, provided $ 50,000 in grants to a non-profit organization controlled by Migdol, which, among other things, donated supplies to Harlem schools. is in the submission. .
“In doing so, Benjamin abused his authority as senator of the State of New York, and participated in a bribery scheme with public funds for his own corrupt purposes,” the paperwork said.
Benjamin originally approached Migdol in 2019 with a request to raise small contributions for the controller campaign, but Migdol said he was focusing on fundraising for his non-profit. Later that year, Benjamin was informed by Senate leadership that he had an additional $ 50,000 in discretionary funding for use in schools, libraries, or educational nonprofits in his neighborhood. Benjamin told Migdol that he intended to obtain that funding for Migdol’s non-profit, according to the indictment.
About a month later, Migdol would make campaign contributions to Benjamin’s campaign through checks written in the name of relatives who do not share his last name, and in the name of an LLC controlled by Migdol, in an attempt to trace the origins of to hide the contributions, according to court paperwork.
Later that fall, Benjamin Migdol presented with an oversized $ 50,000 check for a charity, Friends of Public School Harlem. It is unclear whether the funds were ever donated to charity.
“Taxpayer money for campaign contributions – quid pro quo,” Williams said Tuesday. “That’s bribery, simple and straightforward.”
Migdol would continue with more fraudulent contributions to the campaign between 2019 and 2021, the paper says, adding that some contributions “were made in the name of individuals who did not personally fund the contributions, or who were reimbursed for such contributions. ”
Benjamin then engaged in a series of “lies and deceptions” to conceal the scheme and the connection with Migdol, according to the submission. This included falsifying campaign forms, misleading city regulators and repeatedly lying on forms he filled out as part of the process of appointing a lieutenant governor, Williams said.
“That’s a cover-up,” Williams added. “Public corruption destroys the trust and confidence of people in government. It is our duty to uphold the rule of law.”
What happens next?
Benjamin’s arrest comes at an exciting time in Albania, as Hochul has just wrapped up her first state budget with the legislature and is preparing for the final piece of her bid for a full term as governor.
Now questions have been raised about whether Hochul will continue with Benjamin as her political partner in the June primary. Meanwhile, Benjamin is likely to receive immediate public calls for his dismissal.
Last week, she said she had full confidence in Benjamin as her running mate, as questions arose as to why Benjamin Hochul had not been informed about the investigation into his previous campaign prior to his nomination for his current role.
She had previously said she did not know about the federal subpeonas related to Benjamin’s previous campaign and his use of public funding.
“I have the utmost confidence in my lieutenant governor,” Hochul said last week during a state budget press release. “This is an independent research related to other people, and he is fully collaborating.”
Benjamin, also present at that briefing, added that he provided all relevant information to the New York State Police as they searched his background during the lieutenant governor appointment process.
How did NY lawmakers react?
Following the news of the indictment and arrest on Tuesday, Hochul’s opponents pointed to her demise in the verdict when appointing Benjamin as her lieutenant governor.
Today’s bombing is an indictment of Kathy Hochul’s lack of experience and bad judgment, “said Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-Glen Cove, who is running against Hochul for governor.
Se. Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, called on Benjamin to resign, pointing to the public distraction caused by the myriad scandals that Hochul’s predecessor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, last fall.
“Lt. Gov. Benjamin must be fired immediately because he is sitting under a cloud of crime and we can have no other distraction like we had in the past year (with Cuomo,)” Tedisco said. “This arrest also raises serious questions about the verdict of Governor Hochul and his review process.”
The developments shed a disappointing light on Hochul’s desire to turn the page on corruption in Albany, Sen said. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome.
“The governor has declared that she would make it a priority to ‘change the culture of Albania’. This has not happened under her leadership,” Griffo said in a statement on Tuesday. “The arrest of Lt. Governor Brian Benjamin remains a disappointing, troublesome and frustrating trend for state government and on Gov. Hochul’s administration.”
Sarah Taddeo is the New York State Team Editor for the USA Today Network. Do you have a story tip or comment? Contact Sarah at [email protected] or on Twitter @Sjtaddeo.