NEW YORK MINUTE: State Inspector General Lucy Lang’s office is out with a new 84-page report examining the first two years of her time in the role. Between 2022 and 2023 the office, which serves as an investigative ombudsman for the executive branch, received 12,705 complaints. The vast majority are from allegations of workers’ compensation fraud. Lang has sought to raise the profile of the little-known office, becoming a more prominent figure in the media over the last two years. BENJAMIN CASE: Federal prosecutors’ key witness in the bribery case against former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin died earlier this month. So the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York may have to drop its case against Benjamin — a case where a judge already tossed the top charges since they didn’t meet the standard of a crime. Gerald Migdol, a real estate developer and attorney, died on Feb. 9, The New York Law Journal first reported. Migdol pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme in 2022, testifying that he donated to Benjamin’s campaign in return for a $50,000 state grant to a nonprofit he ran. “Jerry’s passing is a terrible loss,” Migdol’s lawyers Joel Cohen and Jerry Goldfeder said in a statement, using Migdol’s nickname. “He was an unusually kind, generous and charitable man.” Benjamin’s team argues that prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ office coerced Migdol into confessing to a quid pro quo. They say Benjamin, who was a Democratic state Senator running for city comptroller at the time, did nothing illegal and didn’t know about Migdol’s straw donor scheme. A federal judge agreed and dropped the bribery and fraud counts against Benjamin before the case even got to trial, leaving only lesser counts of falsification of records. The prosecutors appealed and now are waiting for a ruling on whether the charges should be reinstated. Prosecutors planned to have Migdol testify at Benjamin’s trial, they wrote a letter alerting the appeals court of his death. Despite that, they wrote, “the Government does not presently intend to abandon any allegation in the Indictment.” But a former federal prosecutor who handled government corruption cases thinks they’ll have to drop it. “It’s hard to see how they would have sufficient evidence to put in front of a jury on the bribery charges,” Paul Tuchmann, a partner at Wiggin and Dana, said in an interview. “Theoretically, the government could always find additional proof,” but “in this case, it’s hard to imagine what the other evidence would be.” So why not drop the appeal? Tuchmann says the judge’s ruling dismissing the charges against Benjamin is a bad precedent for the government, one that could make alleged government corruption even harder to prove in court than it already is. Benjamin’s lawyer Barry Berke and the Southern District both declined to comment. But fellow politicians are closely watching Benjamin’s case. More than a dozen current and former Democratic elected officials wrote in an amicus brief last year they were “gravely concerned” that prosecutors’ case could “criminalize ordinary, innocent — indeed, necessary — conduct.” — Jeff Coltin HAPPY FRIDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE’S KATHY? In Washington, D.C. for the National Governors Association Conference. WHERE’S ERIC? Breaking ground on the new Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center, calling in for an interview on GMGT Live’s “The Reset Talk Show,” hosting a roundtable discussion with Korean community leaders, delivering remarks at Cornerstone Evangelist Temple’s virtual Black History Month celebration, speaking at Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar’s Dominican Republic Independence Day celebration, then speaking at Aasha Charity Foundation’s sixth-anniversary celebration. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “This one is for all the marbles.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking at a fundraiser in Binghamton on upcoming swing seat races in New York.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment