Former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin on Monday dodged serious bribery and fraud raps when a Manhattan judge dismissed three federal charges against him.
Judge Paul Oetken ruled in an opinion that federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York failed to outline the explicit quid pro quo needed for bribery, honest services wire fraud and a related conspiracy charge brought in the April federal indictment against Benjamin.
Brian will still face two counts of falsification of records, Oetken said.
The falsification charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Benjamin, a Harlem Democrat, was accused of accepting contributions for his state senate and city comptroller campaigns from real-estate developer Gerald Migdol in exchange for steering state funds to a non-profit the donor controlled.
Since charges against him were brought, Benjamin – who resigned as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s No. 2 in April – has fervently pushed back through his lawyers in hearings and filings in the case.
In August, defense lawyer Barry Berke accused prosecutors of improperly charging his client, calling it the “most aggressive political corruption case ever made by the US government.
“Simply asking for money before or after a benefit, that cannot be enough,” Berke told Judge Oetken at a hearing.
In his opinion Monday, Oetken said prosecutors failed to show the necessary explicit quid pro quo in their indictment against Benjamin, which tracks with legal opinions held by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The Second Circuit has held — again, explicitly — that ‘proof of an express promise is necessary when the payments are made in the form of campaign contributions,’ ” Oetken wrote.
“With this understanding in mind, Counts One, Two, and Three of the Indictment must be dismissed because it does not allege as an element of any of the three counts that Benjamin made an ‘explicit’ agreement with Migdol that his conduct as a state senator would be controlled in exchange for campaign contributions,” Oetken added.
The charges dropped against Benjamin — wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy — carry maximum prison terms of 20 years, 10 years and five years, respectively.
Oetken said prosecutors came close to meeting the threshold for the allegations when they wrote Benjamin accepted Migdol’s contributions “in exchange for” grants to his non-profit but still fell short.
“In its opposition brief, the government insists that the ‘in exchange for’ phrasing satisfies the explicit requirement,” Oetken wrote.
“It does not,” he said.
A rep for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on the decision Monday.
