William Benning: Found Guilty of Charges in the Articles of Impeachment, In a Trial Full of Twists and Turns

LOS SANTOS (WZ) — ‘It’s time to open a new page.’ The state looks onwards from this dark political chapter in hopes of a peaceful election with a promising outcome. 

You can watch the whole proceedings here: WeazelTV – Trial of William Benning 

Weazel PolitiPoll did a private polling session before the trial, it showed 3/5 people wanted the Impeachment process to be suspended, most arguing it was impacting the duties of sitting representatives and that because Benning had resigned, there was no need to go further. 

The Impeachment Trial against William Benning has found that he committed the charges laid against him in the Articles of Impeachment. With these charges, he was also found guilty of Perjury on the stand after he denied that he said the threats which were a part of a recorded exhibit played in the courtroom. 

The counts of impeachment were;

• Count of Corruption
• Count of Bribery
• Count of Uttering threats; and
• Count of Disturbing the Peace

The Prosecution outlined a series of incidents that provided evidence to support the articles of impeachment. 

The first witness was Cassandra Cohen. She testified that on four separate occasions, Mr. Benning acted in serious ways, from inciting violence or uttering threats of violence. One key example was instances where Benning took a position of Vigilantism. Specifically, these quotes which Ms. Cohen alleges Mr. Benning said. “Time for vigilantly Benning to come out,” and “if you need anyone to be taken care of I have a pistol…” The prosecution argued using this that Mr. Benning had a history of taking the law into his own hands. 

During the cross-examination conducted by Mr. Benning, he outlined a series of missing details where Ms. Cohen wasn’t around to see any context. One example was an incident involving a person in a ‘strawberry hat’ where Ms. Cohen alleged that Benning was harassing the person, while Benning maintains that he was talking to the person because they had driven their vehicle up some stairs into a pedestrian area.

One incident of particular interest to the prosecution was Mosleys, where they alleged that Mr. Benning had intentionally urinated on an employee’s vehicle. Benning argued that it wasn’t intentional, but it was because he couldn’t find a bathroom and at the time he had a Urinary Tract Infection. Because of this alleged incident, a physical altercation occurred where staff members and Benning engaged in a fistfight. A gun was drawn and de-escalation quickly occurred with Benning leaving the property.

Another incident alleged by the Prosecution was a fight involving Mr. Benning and two Black Uber employees. According to testimony, the fight took place at the Black Uber headquarters and it’s alleged that Mr. Benning yelled threats at one of the employees which triggered the fight. To quote from testimony: “[you are] going to be my fourth victim.” 

The target of that alleged insult was Leo Carpio who also testified today. According to his own testimony, he and Benning had a lengthy relationship however it soured over time. Leo alleged that Benning and himself did cocaine, bought illegal unregistered firearm parts and that Benning threatened him and others, and threatened that he was going to kill members of the Department of Justice, with some specific targets. Leo also alleged the existence of a ‘hitlist’ which according to the prosecution, consisted of some Department of Justice members. 

Benning Lawyer, who had arrived at this stage attempted to dismiss all these allegations by calling into doubt the credibility of the witnesses testimony due to the consumption of Cocaine. However, the hitlist incident, according to Leo, took place long after any drugs had been consumed. 

After two and a half hours the State rested its case and with that, it was up to William Benning and his lawyer to disprove everything that was alleged in order to have a glimmer of hope of avoiding impeachment. Things started off to a denying start, with Benning meticulously denying every aspect of the prosecution’s claims, from the incident at Black Uber to the incident at Mosley. 

While on the stand Benning alleged that the statements made by Cassandra Cohen used in an arrest warrant were not the same statements when the warrant was issued, alleging that the Department of Justice had forged evidence in order to secure a warrant. This allegation was subsequently dismissed.

In the cross-examination of William Benning, the prosecution brought to attention the allegation of a phone call between Leo and Benning, where Leo alleges that Benning threatened to kill members of the Department of Justice, more directly “to Skin Cole Gordon.” Benning denied such claims, however, the prosecution produced an audio recording exhibit which allegedly showed that Benning did indeed answer a phone call from Leo and during that conversation, threatened to kill members of the department and bring mention to the ‘hitlist.’ Benning continued to deny that it was him even after the recording was played by the prosecution. Benning then went on to accuse Leo of perjury and fabricating his statements. 

A sidebar occurred after the exhibit had been partially played and the court ruled that the recording will no longer be heard and that Benning was the person making threats on the phone and that he would be charged with perjury for lying under oath. Even after this, he continued to deny that it was him.

In a moment which can only be described as astonishing. Becks Lawson, who was sitting in the jury box was permitted to ask questions for the trial. During her questioning Benning alleged that the Department of Justice was involved in a conspiracy to remove him from office and previously Benning thought that Becks and Endeavour were involved in that conspiracy. The questioning went back and forth between the two and then the ‘Becks Tapes’ were spoken of. Becks alleged that Benning committed ‘election fraud’ by using tapes made under duress in order to swing votes away from her in the previous election. Benning went on further to say “it’s not fraud when she actually puts hits out on people.” 

Final deliberations among the representatives only went for about fifteen minutes with all representatives voting in favor of impeachment. Benning, as previously mentioned, was also charged with perjury due to the recording exhibit. He was sentenced for perjury and taken to Mission Row to be processed.