Jeff Lewis was in charge of controlling Benjamin, then a state senator from Haarlem, before Hotsul made him No. 2 last year, sources said Wednesday. However, the review was done “for sure,” a source said, with Lewis not revealing the alleged lies he included in some of the official forms he filled out – lies detailed in a federal bribery indictment unveiled Tuesday. “Looking at the news yesterday, I was really disappointed because it came to our notice,” said a source. A source close to Hotsul revealed that “there were some flags” about Benjamin’s check forms and “some questions about returning and securing their treatment”, including asking the state police to conduct a second history check. The issue was even discussed in official emails circulating among Hochul executives, but was withdrawn a few days later, the source said. Both Lewis and lawyer Jeffrey Pearlman, the governor’s special adviser, then gave the green light to Hochul to choose Benjamin, the source said. The process of controlling former Lieutenant Brian Benjamin by Governor Kathy Hotsul is said to have been “accelerated” by Chief of Staff Jeff Lewis. James Messersmith Former Governor David Patterson, who is also a former state senator from Haarlem, told The Post that he heard unspecified “gossip” about Benjamin at the time he was called vice-governor, but did not believe he would be fired. Patterson also said Hotsul spoke positively of Benjamin during a fundraiser in Manhattan on Monday night. “It gave me the impression that Hotsul did not know what was going on,” he said. A Manhattan federal court indictment on Tuesday charged Benjamin with five counts of allegedly plotting to smuggle $ 50,000 into the campaign for about the same amount of illegal campaign contributions. Former Governor David Paterson believes Governor Kathy Hochul was unaware of Brian Benjamin’s alleged plans.Lev Radin / Pacific Press / Shutterstock Hotsul announced Benjamin’s resignation late Tuesday afternoon, and his lawyers told him he would fight the charges in court. Lewis’s first job was as a summer intern for Hochul in 2009, when he worked for Erie County and hired him to manage her correspondence in Congress in 2012. He continued to work with her after being elected vice-governor in 2014 and saw his annual salary soar from $ 122,000 to $ 200,000 last year when he succeeded scandal-ridden governor Andrew Cuomo after resigning over a sexual harassment scandal, according to See . Former Lieutenant Brian Benjamin is accused of embezzling $ 50,000 in state aid for campaign contributions. Steven Young As head of Hochul’s board, Lewis held one-on-one meetings with Cuomo’s executive assistants to determine who will join its management, The Post reported last year. Last month, she was fired as a senior adviser on her campaign and in the state Democratic Party, according to his LinkedIn profile. A source said the move was apparently the result of his recruitment decisions. Other sources close to Hodgson suggested that Benjamin’s control may also have played a role. At an event in Queens on Wednesday, Hotsul discussed Benjamin’s date and what was known about him. Governor Kathy Hochul vows to find a better candidate for a second term in office. Robert Mecea “These were issues that were not addressed in the forms he filled out for us, but in terms of our knowledge of them, we were told that everything had been resolved, that compensation had been paid, in the past and it was something that happened before,” he said. “Well, these are just a few examples in the process, but we will do a much better control process.” Pearlman also worked for Hochul in 2015 and 2016, before being appointed director of the Government Bureau’s Budget Office. His annual salary as an Executive Chamber employee is $ 204,000, according to SeeThroughNY. Neither Lewis, Pearlman nor Hochul’s office immediately responded to requests for comment. An anonymous source familiar with Lewis’s defense defended him and denied that he had been transferred to the campaign as punishment for bad control practices: “It’s very convenient,” the man said, adding that it was Lewis’s idea to go on the campaign. “The campaign will be more and more prepared.” “Nothing was found that was not public property,” said a source close to Benjamin’s background, who said Lewis was unaware of any calls received from Benjamin’s failed auditor campaign and claimed they may not have appeared at all in the proceedings. The source also admitted that the control period “accelerated” from the transitional period of two weeks between the embarrassed former governor. The resignation of Andrew Cuomo and the assumption of power by Governor Kathy Hochul.
