Gibson Dunn Team Successfully Defends Former New York Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin

Firm News  |  January 22, 2025

A Gibson Dunn team, led by partners Barry Berke, Dani James and Darren LaVerne successfully defended New York’s former Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin in a bribery and fraud suit, as federal prosecutors finally dropped their suit against Benjamin and ended the nearly three-year-long case against him. Prosecutors said in their nolle prosequi filing that “based on a review of evidence in the case” and in light of [a key witness’s death], “the government has determined that it can no longer prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the charges in the indictment.” 

This resolution comes after the Gibson Dunn team met privately with prosecutors to ask that they drop the case, and to do so before the current administration left office. Upon the charges being dismissed, the team reacted, “Today’s vindication of Brian Benjamin is a timely reminder of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous words: ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’  It has been a great honor to represent Brian, and we always believed this day would come.”

The suit, brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, had alleged that Benjamin used his position to obtain state grant funds for a Harlem charity in exchange for campaign contributions.