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Strategist for Pro-Trump Super-PAC Convicted in Ron Paul Pay-for-Endorsement Scheme

by CharlieRodgers Posted on May 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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An Iowa jury found three political operatives with deep ties to Ron and Rand Paul guilty on Thursday of a scheme to pay an Iowa state senator for his endorsement of Ron Paul in the 2012 campaign.

All three men were key Ron Paul lieutenants in that campaign, and two, Jesse Benton and John Tate, went on to run a pro-Rand Paul super-PAC during his 2016 candidacy. After the younger Paul dropped out of the race, Benton began working last month with a pro-Donald Trump super-PAC. Along with Benton and Tate, operative Dimitri Kesari was also convicted.

The convictions stem from a plan to woo then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson away from the campaign of Michele Bachmann, whom Sorenson had already endorsed in late 2011. Sorenson testified during the trial that he was offered $25,000 to change his loyalties but, as emails presented by prosecutors to the jury showed, that plan was scrapped out of concern that a direct payment to Sorenson would show up on public disclosures. Instead, the campaign paid Sorenson roughly $73,000 by way of an audio-visual consultant in Maryland who testified that he never did any work for the campaign. The payments to the contractor were disguised on Federal Election Commission reports to hide the fact that Sorenson was being paid.

Sorenson took a plea deal in the case, admitting his role in the scheme and agreeing to testify against the three men.

It isn’t against federal law to pay a state senator for an endorsement. But it does violate Iowa Senate ethics rules, and prosecutors successfully argued that in trying to cover up the payments, the campaign ran afoul of federal election laws that require campaigns to disclose their expenses accurately.

The indictments against the men, which were filed in August 2015, shortly before the first Republican presidential debate, were among several blows to Rand Paul’s campaign, which attempted to distance itself from Benton and Tate. An earlier attempt by the Department of Justice to convict the three men met with mixed results. Before the trial even began in October, a judge tossed out the charges against Tate. The jury convicted Kesari of one charge and acquitted Benton of another but could not reach a verdict on the remaining charges. The jury that issued its verdict on Thursday, however, convicted all three men relatively quickly, returning a verdict within a few hours of closing arguments.

Tate and Benton ended up taking leaves from the super-PAC, America’s Liberty PAC, during their first trial. Benton—who changed lawyers between trials, after his first team of lawyers said he could no longer afford to pay them—picked up work with the pro-Trump super-PAC in early March. He also billed Marco Rubio’s campaign for $13,600 worth of work on March 25.

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Strategist for Pro-Trump Super-PAC Convicted in Ron Paul Pay-for-Endorsement Scheme

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Disgraced Ex-Iowa State Senator Testifies Against Ron Paul Aides

by Brittny87A Posted on October 16, 2015

Mother Jones

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In late 2011, then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson had committed to backing Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign in the run-up to the 2012 Iowa caucuses. But Sorenson was getting irritated with Bachmann and felt he owed the Ron Paul campaign something. After all, he testified in an Iowa courtroom Thursday, many of Paul’s campaign staffers had previously worked for the National Right to Work Committee, an anti-union group with close ties to the Paul family, and they had supported Sorenson’s political aspirations with money and manpower.

In the days after Christmas 2011, Sorenson said, the Paul campaign pressured him to switch sides, and after he asked for money to change his endorsement, a Paul operative stuffed a $25,000 check into the hands of Sorenson’s wife.

Read our April feature on the Paul family scandal here.

Sorenson’s testimony came during the trial of two Paul family political operatives: Jesse Benton, who is married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter, was chairman of the 2012 presidential campaign and operated a super-PAC backing Rand Paul in the 2016 race. Dimitri Kesari, who gave Sorenson’s wife the $25,000 check, is a longtime National Right to Work Committee and Paul family associate.

While paying for Sorenson’s endorsement violated Iowa Senate rules, it is not illegal under federal law for a presidential campaign to do so. Prosecutors say Kesari and Benton crossed the line when they allegedly tried to cover up the payments to Sorenson. Benton faces one count of making false statements to federal investigators. His attorneys argue that he didn’t know much about the deal with Sorenson and did not lie when he told investigators he knew nothing about the scheme. Kesari, on the other hand, faces a slew of charges, including conspiracy, campaign finance charges, and obstruction of justice.

In court, Sorenson recalled making the decision to switch his endorsement.

“I’m sorry for what I’m about to do,” Sorenson testified that he told a friend on the Bachmann campaign after revealing to him and others on Bachmann’s campaign that the Paul camp had offered him money to switch sides. Then, he said, he drove to a Paul event, where he was eagerly greeted by Kesari, who ushered him inside, where Benton and others on the campaign were waiting. Sorenson testified he was led over to meet Benton.

“I remember specifically asking Jesse if they would take care of me,” Sorenson testified, when asked whether he arrived at the Paul event with the expectation of being paid to change his endorsement. The response from Benton, according to Sorenson, was “You’re bleeding for us—we’ll take care of you.”

Later that night, Sorenson said that Kesari took his cellphone away to prevent him from talking to the media or anyone else about his reasons for switching sides. “I was a wreck,” Sorenson recalled.

Bachmann publicly accused Sorenson of taking money to switch sides—it was later revealed that Sorenson was paid by Bachmann’s campaign first—and the morning after his decision, Sorenson said Kesari, Benton, and others counseled him on how to handle the situation and prepped him on how to address the media.

Sorenson pleaded guilty last fall in federal court to charges that he helped the campaign hide the payments. On Wednesday, Ron Paul testified, stating that he didn’t approve of endorsements and certainly wouldn’t have wanted his campaign to pay for one.

Besides Sorenson’s and Paul’s testimony, prosecutors have introduced dozens of emails and financial records showing that the Paul campaign funneled money to Sorenson via a third party—a company in Maryland that did no work for the campaign but was paid for “audio-visual” work and then turned around and paid Sorenson. The payments are not in dispute, but defense attorneys for Kesari and Benton have argued that they are a normal part of politics and that there was no crime in the way they were reported.

Sorenson will return to the witness stand tomorrow.

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Disgraced Ex-Iowa State Senator Testifies Against Ron Paul Aides

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Ron Paul Gives Fiery Testimony in Trial of Two Indicted Top Aides

by KatrinVlnnfw Posted on October 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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Former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul took the stand in an Iowa federal courthouse this afternoon in the trial of two of his top aides from his 2012 presidential campaign. The aides have been accused of paying for the endorsement of an Iowa state senator and then trying to cover it up. Paul blasted prosecutors and the media while still testifying that he abhorred the concept of paying for endorsements.

Paul was called as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Jesse Benton, his 2012 presidential campaign chairman who is also married to Paul’s granddaughter. Another longtime Paul family political operative, Dimitri Kesari, is also on trial. Kesari worked as deputy campaign manager in 2012.

The charges in the case stem from a scheme by Paul’s 2012 campaign to pay then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson more than $70,000 to endorse Paul in the days before the Iowa caucuses in late 2011. Four of the charges against Benton were dropped when a judge ruled that prosecutors had improperly handled the indictments. Benton still faces a count of making false statements to prosecutors after he denied any knowledge of the alleged plan when they asked him about it last summer. Kesari faces six charges, including federal conspiracy and campaign finance charges. Prosecutors also say Kesari attempted to convince Sorenson to not tell investigators everything he knew.

During his testimony, Paul switched between appearing almost politically naive—claiming he knew almost nothing of how his campaign paid expenses and telling a long folksy story of his dislike for political endorsements—and exhibiting fiery anger. Paul loudly denounced the prosecution for its case against Benton and the damage it has done to his son Rand’s 2016 presidential campaign.

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Ron Paul Gives Fiery Testimony in Trial of Two Indicted Top Aides

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Three Top Rand Paul Associates Were Just Indicted

by ClayBrandon Posted on August 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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After years of investigation by the Department of Justice, three top Rand Paul associates, including the senator’s nephew-in-law, were indicted for their role in an alleged attempt to buy an influential Iowa state senator’s endorsement of Ron Paul during his 2012 presidential campaign. None of these operatives, who served as top Ron Paul campaign aides, is currently on the payroll of Rand Paul’s presidential campaign. But two of them—Jesse Benton, who is married to Paul’s niece, and John Tate—run a pro-Rand Paul super-PACs that has raised $3.1 million to support Paul’s presidential campaign.* The third man indicted, Dimitri Kesari, has served as an aide to both Rand Paul and his father.

Last year, former Republican Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges accusing him of helping to cover up a scheme for the Ron Paul campaign to pay him more than $70,000 to switch his endorsement immediately before the 2012 Iowa caucus, from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul. Sorenson has been awaiting sentencing pending his cooperation in a further investigation, but it hasn’t been clear who on Ron Paul’s staff would be caught up in the scandal. At the time Benton served as the campaign’s chairman, Tate as the campaign manager, and Kesari as the deputy campaign manager.

All three men were charged with criminal conspiracy and federal charges related to falsification of government records. Tate and Benton face charges of making false statements to federal investigators; Kesari was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to persuade Sorenson to deny the scheme when pressed by prosecutors.

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Three Top Rand Paul Associates Were Just Indicted

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