GOP operative pardoned by Trump convicted of funneling Russian dollars to Trump campaign

Jesse Benton, a previous best aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and previous Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), was convicted Thursday of assisting a Russian citizen illegally funnel a political donation to former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign. Benton, 44, ordered a $25,000 ticket to a September 2016 Republican National Committee occasion for Trump and gave the ticket to Russian multilevel marketer Roman Vasilenko. Vasilenko then gave Benton $100,000.

Elections “reflect the values and the priorities and the beliefs of American citizens,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Parikh stated at Benton’s trial this week. “Jesse Benton by his steps did harm to these principles.”

This is Benton’s 2nd conviction for campaign finance violations. In May 2016, he was identified responsible of illegally facilitating the transfer of $73,000 to an Iowa state senator in exchange for endorsing Ron Paul for the duration of his 2012 presidential bid. Trump pardoned Benton in December 2020, before long before leaving office.

Prosecutors indicted Benton and Doug Wead, a conservative evangelical pundit concerned in multilevel advertising and marketing, in September 2021. Wead, who died later on that yr at age 75, was accused of connecting Vasilenko to Benton.

Benton’s law firm, Brian Stolarz, argued through the trial that Vasilenko was just a self-promoter eager to spend to get pictures of himself with stars, and he and Wead settled on Trump just after wanting into image ops with Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Stephen Seagal, The Washington Publish reviews. “If Oprah was offered,” he said in his closing argument, “we wouldn’t even be here.” Stolarz said Vasilenko was interested in a photo with “the dude who utilised to be on The Apprentice,” not a long term president, and Trump appeared only briefly at the fundraiser and “just talked about polls.”

Prosecutors disputed the notion that Vasilenko wasn’t intrigued in Trump’s political cachet, noting he was functioning for a seat in Russia’s parliament at the time, and his photograph with Trump served get him on Russian television. And Benton, they said, clearly ought to have identified he was violating federal campaign finance guidelines soon after his 2016 conviction.

Tale carries on

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