Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin’s arrest exposes Kathy Hochul’s vast ethics problem

Lt. Governor Brian Benjamin surrendered to federal authorities Tuesday morning.
Hans Pennink

Simply days after Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced she was standing by her mendacity Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who has repeatedly memory-holed subpoenas and chats with varied state and federal investigators probing his previous marketing campaign actions, Benjamin surrendered to arrest by the feds.

Oops.

The fees heart on his run for metropolis comptroller final 12 months; the FBI arrested one among his prime fundraisers, Harlem real-estate mogul Gerald Migdol, in November, charging him with wire fraud in unlawful funding of Benjamin’s marketing campaign.

That may’ve been time to discover a new No. 2, gov, approaching prime of revelations that Benjamin lied on disclosure types to turn out to be LG, pretending he’d by no means been below investigation when he knew he was on the time.

Or when the Occasions Union reported that Benjamin performed quick and free with the state Senate’s per diem and journey reimbursement system in addition to state marketing campaign finance disclosure guidelines. After that broke, he reimbursed his marketing campaign committee to be used of its bank card on journeys lined by the Senate.

Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin (2nd left) was arrested Tuesday for an alleged marketing campaign finance rip-off tied to his days within the state Senate.

KENA BETANCUR/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

Or perhaps final month, when the feds subpoenaed the state Senate over grants Benjamin could have steered to Associates of Harlem Public Colleges Inc., a charity Migdol managed.

It’s near-impossible to get Benjamin off the June major poll (he has to die, transfer out of state or run for one more workplace), however his two challengers simply bought an enormous enhance: former Metropolis Councilwoman Diana Reyna and lefty activist Ana Maria Archila.

This mess provides to Hochul’s personal varied woes on the ethics entrance: Many assume she was far too beneficiant with the Buffalo Payments’ out-of-state house owners in a deal for the taxpayers to cowl most prices for the workforce’s new stadium, and he or she’s been completely Cuomoesque in her fund-raising, hoovering up darkish cash from the real-estate business.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senator Brian Benjamin on the particular announcement naming Senator Benjamin because the Lieutenant Governor.

Debra L. Rothenberg/ZUMA Press Wire

Plus, she went together with a lame alternative for the state’s ethics panel that also leaves lawmakers selecting their very own ethics police. (It’s no coincidence that Benjamin faces federal prices, like former Meeting Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate chief Dean Skelos earlier than him.)

“I've the utmost confidence within the lieutenant governor,” Hochul instructed reporters simply final week. If nothing else, she’s simply proved her personal judgment stinks.