A minor dispute over a cell phone has morphed into a legal headache for Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor Preet Bharara.
Second-year law student Benula Bensam sued Bharara, along with the US Marshals Service and the Justice Department, in Manhattan federal court for “unreasonable search and seizure” after the marshals took her cell phone away during the trial of ex-Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta.
The 25-year-old Bensam, who is representing herself, said the marshals kept her phone overnight after she refused to answer their questions about letters she wrote to Judge Jed Rakoff during Gupta’s insider-trading trial.
Bensam, who attends law school at Yeshiva University and lives in the Woodside section of Queens, stopped writing Rakoff about the case after he reprimanded her.
In the complaint, Bensam said Bharara “may have instigated” her dispute with the marshals.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s office declined to comment. A spokesman for the US Marshals office didn’t return a request for comment.