The lead prosecutor overseeing Mayor Adams' landmark federal corruption case has a reputation as a “cowboy” with a penchant for inciting mobs and taking risks, and could do the same in former Lt. Gov. Adams' chaotic case. There is sex. Gov. Brian Benjamin and a person close to Hizzoner said.
Hagan Scotten, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, has prosecuted a number of high-profile federal fraud cases in recent years, including against Rudy Giuliani's former associates and Adams. He has won a conviction. Mentee “Bring Bishop” Lamor Whitehead.
But Mr. Hitzoner's aides feel comfortable with prosecutors risking their pursuit of his next high-profile scalp, potentially undermining the explosive corruption charges against the mayor. I believe there is, and this is the same as the federal proceedings against Mr. Benjamin, which Mr. Scotten also handled.
“He's known as a risk-taking cowboy,” a source close to Adams told the Post.
“[It’s] This is unusual for this office and is a serious sign that there may be holes in this case, similar to what happened with Benjamin.”
Benjamin resigned in 2022 after being accused by federal authorities of accepting campaign contributions from real estate developers in exchange for directing state funds to his nonprofit. He was charged with bribery, fraud and falsifying records.
A federal judge in Manhattan ultimately dismissed the bribery charges, ruling that there was no evidence of a “quid pro quo.”
An appeals court reversed that decision in March, and Benjamin's team petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
“Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, Brian Benjamin's political career is over,” the mayor's lawyers told Manhattan prosecutors this week as part of a last-ditch effort to quash criminal charges against Hizzoner. stated in a letter to.
“Mayor Adams would face a similar fate if he were indicted here on far less convincing evidence.”
Scotten, on the other hand, was convicted of conspiring with others to divert $100,000 from a Russian businessman to political campaigns in 2018 and sentenced to 20 months in prison. He briefly came under scrutiny for comments he made during the federal criminal trial against colleague Lev Parnas. .
Defense attorney Joseph Bondi argued that Scotten had threatened to shoot him, but prosecutors said the remark was a joke, and the judge agreed.
Mr. Scotten also successfully prosecuted Mr. Whitehead, who was found guilty of fraud and attempting to use his connections to the mayor to extort a Bronx auto mechanic, and sentenced to nine years in prison. It was.
He also sentenced disgraced former FBI counterintelligence chief Charles McGonigal in New York to 50 months in prison after pleading guilty to colluding with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to evade U.S. sanctions. The judgment was finalized.
SDNY and Scotten did not respond to requests for comment.
