Benjamin remains at fault

Manhattan Federal Judge J. Paul Oetken says that Brian Benjamin, New York’s mercifully short-tenured lieutenant governor, cannot be charged by the U.S. attorney’s grand jury with bribery and honest services wire fraud. Too bad. The interpretation of the law in these public corruption cases, as handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, requires an explicit quid pro quo. So Benjamin, while a state senator aiming to run for city comptroller, would have had to say to his pal Jerry Migdol: “Yes, I will give you this $50,000 in public money from the Senate for your nonprofit if, and only if, you collect campaign contributions for me.” Winks and nods and playful elbows to the ribs don’t count.

Absent such a ridiculously staged pronouncement from the accused, there’s no case, says the judge. Whether or not U.S. Attorney Damian Williams will appeal we do not know. But we do know that Benjamin cheated the city’s campaign finance system to try to get fake matching grants for his comptroller campaign. And Williams’ other two charges in the indictment — that Benjamin falsified records related to his campaign and when Gov. Hochul was appointing him LG — remain.

We will add that Benjamin also abused the Senate’s ripe-for-abuse member items, or whatever they are called now, to steer the $50K to Migdol’s group.

So while Benjamin and his lawyers will claim he is the victim of a lawless prosecutor, the truth is that he lied and cheated all over the place, not what New York needs in the second highest office in the state. Williams’ indictment has spared New York from that.

When Hochul asked Benjamin about becoming LG, he lied to her, claiming that he was not under investigation. And he kept lying, allowing her to pick him. It’s another reason that the state Constitution should be amended to make a newly-appointed LG subject to a joint confirmation vote of the Legislature.

As for Benjamin, we are left with a dishonest cheat who did much wrong and may not have committed some felonies.