CityAndStateNY.com
April 25, 2022
“The jails are in a state of crisis, inmates and staff are being seriously injured, and action is desperately needed now.” – U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, threatening to take control of Rikers Island, via Gothamist
Former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin’s lawyer said his client will be using the same defense that then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio used when he was accused of corruption.
BENJAMIN SETS UP HIS DEFENSE
After pleading not guilty to federal charges of bribery and fraud, former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin has built up a legal team that may be familiar to longtime politicos. He hired the attorney who represented former New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio when federal investigators looked into his fundraising practices. De Blasio never faced charges despite prosecutors convicting a donor of his for bribing the former mayor, so Benjamin is likely hoping for a similarly advantageous outcome in his trial. His lawyer has
already begun to offer a defense that successfully kept de Blasio out of trouble, arguing that Benjamin received no personal benefit from the alleged bribery scheme – the money he got all came in the form of campaign contributions. Prosecutors said federal investigators had issued more than
COURSE CORRECTION Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said last week what most New Yorkers paying any attention to the crisis at Rikers Island have been thinking: Something has to change. The feds threatened that absent dramatic, timely reforms carried out by New York City and its Correction Department to tackle problems including violence and insufficient inmate care, they could take it a step further and install an independent receiver to make those changes themselves.
“It’s not always about the far left.”
– state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs, defending his plan to create a new third-party line for Democratic candidates against criticisms that he is trying to create strife with progressives, via the Daily News
160 subpoenas for records that resulted in 160,000 pages of documents. Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s options to remove Benjamin from the ballot remain limited as the state Senate indicated it would not take up any legislative changes to that end and she has said she won’t ask him to move out of state.
COVID-19 ON THE RISE AGAIN
The number of COVID-19 cases in New York continues to tick up after the discovery of two new omicron subvariants. Hochul warned that the state may be on the verge of another spike, reiterating the ongoing requirement to wear masks on public transit despite the recent court ruling striking down the federal mandate. She also reminded New Yorkers of the masking rules still in place at state-regulated health care facilities, jails, prisons and homeless shelters. If cases continue to rise in New York City, it may cause a change in the city’s COVID-19 risk level. Under a system implemented under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, the city’s risk level right now is green, or low risk. But it’s not too far from a risk level of yellow, indicating medium risk. Although it doesn’t automatically trigger new restrictions, the city Health Department has several recommendations for New York City Mayor Eric Adams to consider. Both he and Hochul have expressed
ALEXI J. ROSENFELD/GETTY IMAGES; U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK; NASSAU COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE; OFFICE OF GOV. KATHY HOCHUL
4
