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Three campaign advisers to 2012 presidential candidate Ron Paul were convicted Thursday in a federal case alleging they conspired to cover up the campaign’s payments to a former Iowa state senator who had agreed to endorse their boss. Prosecutors said it is illegal to cause a campaign to file inaccurate spending documents. They’ve pursued charges since July 2015 when a grand jury first indicted the men. Paul’s campaign chairman Jesse Benton, campaign manager John Tate and deputy manager Dimitri Kesari argued they broke no laws when they paid a video production company, which passed on $73,000 to former Sen. Kent...

An Iowa jury has acquitted Jesse Benton, a longtime aide to both former congressman Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), on charges of lying to the FBI. That decision effectively clears two key Paul family aides who had been under an ethical cloud since a December 2011 decision to pay a state senator for his endorsement... Benton had been the chairman of Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign. Like John Tate, who had been Paul's campaign manager, he succeeded in getting the court to drop most of the counts related to the payoff of former senator Kent Sorenson, a Republican...

Three former staffers for the 2012 presidential campaign of then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) -- including one who currently heads the super PAC of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ron Paul's son -- were indicted on Wednesday. The three allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to conceal payments made to an Iowa state senator in exchange for his support of the elder Paul's campaign, according to prosecutors. The three former staffers -- Jesse Benton, John Tate and Dimitrios Kesari -- have been charged with "conspiracy, causing false records to obstruct a contemplated investigation, causing the submission of false campaign expenditure reports to the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that Jesse Benton, the former campaign manager for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), will be part of Paul's campaign team in 2016. Benton, served as McConnell's campaign manager for much of the 2014 cycle until he resigned amid questions about the role he allegedly played in a 2012 Iowa pay-for-votes bribery scandal. Paul, in an interview with WHAS11, said that he thinks "Jesse is honest, he's good at politics and I don't think he's done anything wrong." It wasn't clear from Paul's comments if he was referring to his Senate re-election campaign or the...

The bribery scandal surrounding former Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) 2012 presidential bid is threatening to damage his son’s 2016 White House prospects. The saga took down Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) likely campaign manager, Jesse Benton, who was running Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) reelection bid. And the implications of wrongdoing two years ago could still further trickle down and hobble the younger Paul’s developing presidential campaign apparatus. Benton, a longtime aide to both Pauls, resigned Friday from the GOP Senate leader’s campaign amid controversy sparked by former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson’s admission in court that he accepted tens...

Jesse Benton, the GOP political strategist spearheading Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign, resigned from his post Friday amid new details about an ongoing federal investigation into an endorsement-pay-scheme involving a 2012 presidential campaign he oversaw. In a statement issued Friday evening, Benton cited “inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors about me and my role in past campaigns that are politically motivated, unfair and, most importantly, untrue.” “The press accounts and rumors are particularly hurtful because they are false,” Benton wrote. “However, what is most troubling to me is that they risk unfairly undermining and becoming a distraction...

I just found out some information today that enlightened me as to why Rand Paul has endorsed Mitch McConnell. McConnell's Campaign Manger, Jesse Benton, is part of the Paul family. He is married to Ron Paul's grand daughter and Rand Paul's niece. I wonder if Mitch hiring Rand's nephew-in-law was part of the deal for Rand's endorsement? This is what Benton told the Huffington Post: "I believe in Senator McConnell and am 100 percent committed to his re-election. Being selected to lead his campaign is one of the great honors of my life and I look forward to victory in...

The mainstream media refuses to give it up. ABC News is trying to fool people into believing that Sarah Palin will be a presidential candidate. Check out this graphic and see it for yourself. Before RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was interviewed on This Week, ABC aired a pre-recorded video package with the announcer saying at the end, “There’s no shortage of prospective Republican candidates, and that makes it even more challenging for the party to resolve its ideological divide.” So let’s take a look at who ABC News thinks is a potential Republican presidential candidate: Ted Cruz? Check. Donald Trump?...

Gaffes rarely cause a campaign to unravel. But the revelation that Mitch McConnell's campaign manager privately confided he's "sorta holding my nose" while working for the senator's reelection could still pack a wallop. "I think Jesse spoke for Republicans in Kentucky and all across the country when he said he had to hold his nose to support Senator McConnell," said Matt Hoskins, spokesman for the Senate Conservatives Fund. "McConnell's liberal record and his failure to lead on key issues is very disappointing." Snip "Between you and me, I'm sorta holdin' my nose for two years," Benton says on the recording,...

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign manager said in a taped telephone conversation earlier this year he was "sorta holding my nose" while doing the job, a less-than-flattering remark about a powerful GOP establishment figure struggling to shore up support among tea party voters back home in Kentucky. In a brief telephone interview Thursday, Jesse Benton did not dispute the authenticity of the taping. "I'm not 100 percent positive. I'm not confirming that, but I'm not denying it either," he said. In a separate statement emailed to reporters, he said, "It is truly sick that someone would record a...

Photobombed: McConnell Holds His Nose To Campaign As Conservative Friday, August 9, 2013 | CR PAC Staff | Constitutional Rights PAC This morning McConnell Instagrammed this picure in response to reports that Jesse Benton, his campaign manager said: “Between you and me, I’m sort of holdin’ my nose for two years because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit to Rand in ’16, so that’s my long vision...” But it appears that this isn't the first time Mitch McConnell has been caught on camera holding his nose. It seems that he holds his nose every...

Actress Ashley Judd's name is being thrown out as a Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2014. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) listed her as a possibility. "If you had an Ashley Judd-McConnell race, I think it would be as high profile a race as Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown," Yarmuth said in an interview with the Courier-Journal of Kentucky, referring to the Massachusetts Senate candidates. Judd has been active in Democratic politics. She was a delegate at the Democratic National Committee and also taped campaign ads for President Obama. McConnell has begun gearing up for his...

Weekly calls between the Paul and Romney campaigns This entire stream, uploaded this Thursday from Mark Levin, is very important, but be sure to catch what he plays at the 7:04 mark. It is from a recent "Morning Joe," telecast. at YouTube, "Mark Levin Helps the American People more than Ron Paul could ever hope for" "There is a de facto alliance between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney; there's no question about it. At this point, it's an open partnership, I mean Jesse Benton, Ron Paul's campaign manager, has talked about the extent to which they're cooperating with the Romney...

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...