Jessie Bentonwho served as a former senior aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the senator ran paulplanned to hide an illegal foreign donation with another Republican Party political adviser to support the Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016; seven years later he received an 18-month prison sentence.
In November, a federal jury indicted Benton on various charges, including conspiracy to solicit an illegal foreign campaign contributionas well as for making a conduit contribution and causing false registrations to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, according to the Department of Justice, DOJ.
Prosecutors revealed that the 45-year-old defendant arranged for the Russian citizen to attend a fundraising event for a political campaign and take a picture with Donald Trump. According to DOJ, nor the former president’s campaign. nor were Trump himself aware of the scheme involving Russian money.
The Russian citizen transferred $100,000 to Benton’s political consulting firm to make an illegal foreign contribution, but Balton allegedly pocketed $750,000 and gave $250,000 to the campaign.
The Trump campaign, unaware of this move and according to DOJ filed reports with the FEC that they incorrectly reported Balton as the source of the funds instead of the Russian national.
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Source: La Opinion
