GOP operative convicted of funneling Russian donation to Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign

WASHINGTON — A Republican political operative and former marketing campaign aide was convicted in federal court docket this week of funneling $25,000 from a Russian businessman to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign.

Jesse Benton was discovered responsible Thursday of six counts that included soliciting an unlawful international contribution, making an attempt to cowl it up and submitting false details about the supply of the cash.

The cash for the donation initially got here from Roman Vasilenko, a former Russian naval officer turned multilevel marketer and CEO of the “Life is Good Worldwide Enterprise Academy.”

In keeping with prosecutors, Vasilenko paid Benton’s consulting agency $100,000 to get him right into a political occasion to take a photograph with then-candidate Trump within the fall of 2016.

Benton labored quite a few campaigns, together with as a strategist on the Nice America PAC, an excellent Pac supporting Donald Trump’s 2016 win, in addition to the campaigns of Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, each Republicans from Kentucky, and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.

Benton then purchased a $25,000 ticket to a Trump occasion in Philadelphia on Sept. 22 and “gave” the ticket to Vasilenko, who went on to put up his picture with Trump on his Instagram web page below the caption, “Two Presidents.”

When Benton paid the Trump Victory committee for the ticket, he used his personal bank card, pocketing the remaining $75,000 from Vasilenko.

Benton was initially prosecuted together with the late Republican pundit Roy Douglas “Doug” Wead, who died in late 2021.

Thursday’s conviction marks the second time that Benton has been discovered responsible of a marketing campaign finance crime.

In 2016, a jury convicted Benton and two different defendants of conspiring to bribe an Iowa state senator to endorse then-presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul within the 2012 Iowa Republican Caucus.

The senator, Kent Sorenson, later admitted to accepting greater than $70,000 in bribes to change his help from then-Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., to Ron Paul, whose marketing campaign Benton additionally labored on. Sorenson was sentenced to greater than a yr behind bars for the crime.

Benton obtained six months of dwelling confinement and two years of probation. Notably, Benton’s sentence within the Ron Paul case was handed down on Sept. 20, 2016, simply two days earlier than the Sept. 22 occasion that Benton had organized for Vasilenko to attend with then-candidate Trump.

In late 2020, Trump issued Benton a full pardon for the 2016 conviction, a transfer that was championed by Sen. Rand Paul.

Benton shouldn’t be the one one who has been convicted of serving to international nationals contribute to Trump’s political profession.

In 2018, one other Republican strategist, Sam Patten, admitted to serving to a pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament make a donation to Trump’s Inaugural Committee. Like campaigns, inaugural committees are prohibited from accepting donations from foreigners.

One of many chief questions at problem in Benton’s most up-to-date trial was whether or not Vasilenko’s motive for searching for a photograph with Trump was political in nature, or whether or not he was simply in search of a photograph with a well-known individual.

Proof was offered at trial that Wead and Vasilenko had mentioned making an attempt to get a photograph with Oprah Winfrey or Michelle Obama, however settled on Trump.

“If Oprah was obtainable, we would not even be right here,” protection lawyer Brian Stolarz reportedly stated in his closing argument.