Ron Paul aide convicted but another acquitted of charges related to 2012

Source: Associated Press

An aide to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign was convicted Thursday of one of five charges he faced related to secret payments to an Iowa lawmaker, and jurors acquitted a second aide of making false statements to the FBI.

The federal jury found Dimitri Kesari guilty of causing the campaign to file false records concerning the payments to former Iowa senator Kent Sorenson. He was acquitted of an obstruction of justice charge, and jurors said they could not reach a verdict on counts alleging conspiracy, causing false campaign expenditure reports and a scheme to falsify statements.

Co-defendant Jesse Benton was acquitted of the false statements to the FBI charge, the only one he faced at trial. Benton was the former campaign chairman during the former Texas Republican congressman’s run for president and Kesari was a deputy campaign manager.

During the weeklong trial, prosecutors presented emails and other documents they say showed the men knowingly hid payments to Sorenson between 2011 and 2012, at the height of Paul’s campaign for the presidency. Prosecutors contended both men wanted Sorenson to jump from the Michele Bachmann campaign to the Paul campaign. He ended up doing so just days before the January 2012 Iowa caucuses, where Paul finished third behind former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and the eventual Republican nominee, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/ron-paul-aide-convicted-another-acquitted-2012-campaign