On this Tuesday, September 20, 2016, file photo, Jesse Benton arrives for his sentencing hearing in federal court in Des Moines, Iowa.
David Pit | AP
WASHINGTON — A Republican political official and former campaign aide was convicted in federal court this week of transferring $25,000 from a Russian businessman to his 2016 presidential campaign. Donald Trump.
Jesse Benton was found guilty on Thursday of six counts including soliciting illegal donations from abroad, attempting a cover-up and providing false information about the origin of the funds.
The initial donation came from Roman Vasilenko, a former Russian naval officer turned multi-level marketer and CEO of “Life is Good International Business Academy.”
According to prosecutors, Vasilenko paid Benton’s consulting firm $100,000 to take him to a political event to be photographed with then-candidate Trump in the fall of 2016.
Benton has run numerous campaigns, including as a strategist at the Great America PAC, a super Pac supporting Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, as well as the campaigns of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul, both Republicans from Kentucky, and Representative Ron Paul, R-Texas.
Benton then bought a $25,000 ticket to a Trump event in Philadelphia on September 22 and “gifted” the ticket to Vasilenko, who went on to post a picture of him with Trump on his Instagram page with the caption, “Two Presidents.”
When Benton paid the ticket to the Trump Victory committee, he used his own credit card, pocketing the remaining $75,000 from Vasilenko.
Benton was initially indicted along with the late Republican expert Roy Douglas “Doug” Wead, who die at the end of 2021.
Thursday’s sentencing marks the second time Benton has been found guilty in connection with campaign finance.
In 2016, a jury convicted Benton and two other defendants charged with conspiring to bribe an Iowa senator to endorse Rep. Ron Paul’s prospect of becoming president during the 2012 Iowa Republican caucus.
The senator, Kent Sorenson, later admitted to accepting bribes of more than $70,000 to divert his support from the then-Representative. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., to Ron Paul, with whom Benton also campaigned. Sorenson was sentenced to more than a year in prison for this crime.
Benton received six months of house arrest and two years of probation. Notably, Benton’s statement in The Ron Paul case was circulated on September 20, 2016just two days before the September 22 event that Benton arranged for Vasilenko to attend with then-candidate Trump.
At the end of 2020, Trump issued the Benton Full pardon for 2016 sentencea move that was endorsed by Senator Rand Paul.
Benton is not the only person found guilty of helping foreign nationals contribute to Trump’s political career.
In 2018, another Republican strategist, Sam Patten, admitted to helping a pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament donate to Trump’s Inaugural Committee. Like the campaigns, the opening committee is prohibited from accepting donations from foreigners.
One of the key questions raised during Benton’s most recent trial was whether Vasilenko’s motives in seeking a photo with Trump were political in nature or whether he simply wanted to take a picture with a celebrity.
Evidence was presented at the trial that Wead and Vasilenko discussed trying to get a picture with Oprah Winfrey or Michelle Obama, but decided on Trump.
“If Oprah were present, we wouldn’t even be here,” defense attorney Brian Stolarz the report says in his concluding argument.
