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applegrove

(118,658 posts) Thu Dec 5, 2013, 12:02 AM Dec 2013

"FBI Searches House Of Bachmann Aide"

FBI Searches House Of Bachmann Aide

By Ben Jacobs at the Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/04/fbi-searches-house-of-bachmann-aide.html

"SNIP....................................

Last month, the FBI spent hours searching through the home of Kent Sorensen, a former Iowa State Senator and top aide to Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign and confisicated a variety of material, including computers.

According to the Des Moines Register, the federal law enforcement agency executed a search warrant at Sorensen's house on November 20 in connection to an ongoing investigation of "presidential campaign politics." In particular, accusations that Bachmann was illegally paying Sorensen for his endorsement and that the then-Iowa state senator stole an email list of conservative parents who home school their children for the Bachmann campaign.

None of this would have likely come to light, save for the fact that three days before the 2012 Iowa Caucuses Sorensen dramatically defected to the Ron Paul campaign. Bachmann claimed that Paul had paid off Sorensen to leave her campaign and endorse him, something investigators have subsquently found evidence of. This, combined with a complaint about Sorensen's conduct while on the Bachmann campaign, sparked an ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Bachmann as well as an inquiry by the Federal Election Commission in addition to the FBI's investigation.

An attorney for Sorensen, who resigned from the Iowa State Senate because of the scandal in October, insisted to the Des Moines Register Wednesday morning “We were not notified that he was the target of any investigation. They took computers and things that would be used to verify or validate communications with presidential entities.”

..................................SNIP"

7 replies

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Highlight:

"FBI Searches House Of Bachmann Aide" (Original Post) applegrove Dec 2013 OP

Traces of guano detected Blue Owl Dec 2013 #1

LOL Cali_Democrat Dec 2013 #4

McConnell Campaign Hired Key Figure In National Right To Work Complaint, Records Show struggle4progress Dec 2013 #2

So, this is all a part of why bachmann won't be Cha Dec 2013 #3

Isn't this a new scandal? Coyotl Dec 2013 #5

No idea.. Cha Dec 2013 #6

^ Wilms Dec 2013 #7

Blue Owl

(50,374 posts)

1. Traces of guano detected

Reply to applegrove (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 01:55 AM

Dec 2013

n/t

Cali_Democrat

(30,439 posts)

4. LOL

Reply to Blue Owl (Reply #1)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 02:10 AM

Dec 2013

struggle4progress

(118,282 posts)

2. McConnell Campaign Hired Key Figure In National Right To Work Complaint, Records Show

Reply to applegrove (Original post)

Thu Dec 5, 2013, 01:59 AM

Dec 2013

by Russ Choma on November 26, 2013 4:34 PM

The campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hired a former Ron Paul campaign aide accused of trying to buy the endorsement of an Iowa state senator in 2012, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. The aide, Dimitri Kesari, was also implicated in allegations made last week by a former National Right to Work Committee employee who says the politically active nonprofit broke Iowa state campaign finance rules and misled the Internal Revenue Service about its political activity ...

In August, we reported on an exchange of emails between Ron Paul campaign officials and an associate of Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson having to do with paying to Sorenson to switch his endorsement in the 2012 Iowa caucuses. Sorensen did change his endorsement, from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to Paul, but denied it was for money ...

Yesterday, we reported on allegations made by a former National Right to Work Committee employee who says the organization ran an off-the-books mass mail operation in coordination with legislative candidates in Iowa in 2010. If the allegations are true, they would seem to violate Iowa campaign finance law, and run contrary to the organization's filings with the IRS which claim the anti-union group participated in no political activity.

Kesari is a key figure in the new allegations: He was, at the time, NRTWC's director of government affairs. An email exchange provided by Dennis Fusaro, the former NRTWC employee making the allegations, shows Kesari scolding Fusaro for pulling full-time staff paid by NRTWC from a candidate's campaign without consulting the candidate; Kesari also criticized Fusaro for not keeping another candidate closely involved with the Iowans for Right To Work mass mail program ...

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/11/mcconnell-campaign-hired-key-figure.html