New York's Democratic Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin has been arrested in a bribery scheme, where he allegedly received kickbacks in exchange for political favors while he was a state senator. This is bad news for Democrats in New York who could be facing a contentious re-election attempt this year, as Benjamin is now the second prominent Democrat in less than a year to go down at the top of the state's government. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.
Link - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/ny...
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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Yesterday an indictment was unsealed against Democratic Lieutenant governor of the state of New York, Brian Benjamin. Benjamin was of course arrested. He was released on $250,000 bail. So what did Benjamin do? Well, Benjamin did what a lot of politicians did, except he did it illegally. He basically engaged in a quid pro quo, according to the indictment, of course he has not been convicted. So we can't say that he definitely did it. But he is being accused of bribery and fraud. Here's what it says, according to the New York Times, the five count indictment said, Mr. Benjamin conspired to direct fifty thousand dollars in state funds to a Harlem real estate developer's charity while he was a state Senator. In exchange, the developer orchestrated thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contribution to Mr. Benjamin's unsuccessful 2021 campaign for New York city comptroller and to his Senate campaign. Mr. Benjamin was also accused of offering to help the developer, Gerald Migdol, obtain a zoning variance if he made a $15,000 donation to a separate fund for state Senate Democrats.
The developer was arrested on federal charges in November. So pretty cut and dry. You scratch my back. I scratch your back. You need these zoning variances. I need campaign money. Pretty easy, right? I mean, here's the problem. The way this was carried out, if it's carried out the way the indictment says, of course, again, we cannot say that he did it because he has not been convicted, um, this is what politicians do all the time. It's just that the way he did it was totally illegal, right? That's the biggest problem With politics today. Had they not said these things out loud, right, there would've been no problem. It would've just been here's campaign money. Oh, Okay. Oh, by the way, I'm changing the zoning variance over here that kind of benefits you. Ha, how ironic, right? Yeah, totally. That's legal and that's the problem. That shouldn't be legal just because you don't say it out loud, just because there's no explicit quid pro quo in writing, in email, in text or in conversation doesn't mean it's not the same thing.
If Mr. Benjamin did this, which okay, signs do seem to point to the fact he did it. Good. Get him out of office. Put him in jail if you need to. I don't care. Just because he's a Democrat, I'm not gonna lose any sleep. I'm not so hyperpartisan that I'm willing to sit here and say that Democrats shouldn't be held accountable. They absolutely should. And if he did these things put him away and let's also change the rules for campaign finance to where even if you don't explicitly say the quid pro quo, if you're giving out these benefits to the people who funded your campaign, that should be illegal. Somebody pointed out on Twitter, I, I'm sorry. I forget who it was. I, I think it may have been Jeff Waldorf. But talked about like, this is the stupidest thing to get busted for because yeah, there are perfectly legal ways, unfortunately, to do what this indictment says. Mr. Benjamin did. So the guy's just an idiot basically. I'll tell you what else is a big problem here. Mr. Benjamin is of course on the primary ballot for New York governor this year as the Lieutenant governor. So that's gonna be a problem for Democrats.
You already have somebody at the top of the ticket, Kathy Hochul, who came to power because your previous governor, Andrew Cuomo, had to resign many.
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