Supreme Court Spurns Ex-NY Lieutenant Governor on Bribery Counts
(Bloomberg) -- Former New York Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin must stand trial on bribery charges after the US Supreme Court refused to dismiss three counts alleging he took corrupt campaign donations from a real estate developer.
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The high court made no comment in rejecting Benjamin’s appeal, which contended that a federal indictment needed to lay out an explicit agreement to exchange official actions for campaign contributions.
Prosecutors say that in 2019 Benjamin, then a state senator, allocated $50,000 in state funds to a nonprofit group controlled by real estate developer Gerald Migdol. Soon afterward, Migdol allegedly gave $25,000 to Benjamin’s campaign for New York City controller and began arranging for additional small-dollar contributions.
Benjamin was indicted in April 2022, less than a year after Governor Kathy Hochul appointed him as lieutenant governor. He stepped down from the post the day the charges were announced.
Had it been successful, Benjamin’s Supreme Court appeal could have upended three of the five counts he faces. He is also accused of two counts of falsifying records.
A federal trial judged tossed out the three charges but the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated them in March. The appeals court said that under a 2016 Supreme Court ruling, a so-called “quid pro quo” agreement “need not be expressly stated but may be inferred from the official’s and the payor’s words and actions.”
The case is Benjamin v. United States, 24-142.
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