GOP Operatives Face Campaign Finance Charges After Taking Notes On A Criminal F***in' Conspiracy

Just send it all by email, no one will ever find out.

Russia, if you’re listening … send $100,000 and you, too, can get your picture taken with a presidential candidate. Or you could until those meddlesome kids at the Justice Department put the kibosh on it. Allegedly!

Yesterday the Public Integrity Section unsealed a six-count indictment dated September 9 alleging a straw donor scheme carried out by two longtime Republican political operatives to funnel cash from a Russian national to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and associated fundraising committees. The charges include disguising the source of campaign funds, enabling an illegal campaign contribution, causing the filing of false FEC reports, and conspiracy.

Defendant Jesse Benton has danced this dance before. After serving as campaign manager for Rand Paul’s 2010 senate run, Benton was hired to help with his father Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential bid. In 2014, he was charged with paying a $70,000 bribe to a get an Iowa state senator to switch his endorsement from Michele Bachmann to Paul, after which he was forced to resign as Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager. Benton was convicted in May of 2016 and later pardoned by Trump in the last month of his presidency.

Which raises an interesting question about the timing of these new charges, since the government is cutting it pretty close on that 5-year statute of limitations for acts committed in September of 2016. How long has this case been in the hopper at DOJ? And did anyone at the White House know about it when they punched Benton’s get out of felony ticket?

Benton’s alleged co-conspirator Doug Wead has been kicking around the Republican establishment since the seventies, including a failed congressional run in Arizona, and several books about politics. In 2019, he wrote that the Obama White House engaged in regular “political correctness” jam sessions, because Wead saw “PC” and failed to appreciate that it referred to the National Security Council Principals Committee.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, OPSEC was not a priority for this dream duo. Here’s a fun sample of the bread crumbs they left for investigators:

28. On or about September 11, 2016, WEAD emailed Foreign National 2 suggesting that Foreign National 1 could meet Political Candidate 1 during Foreign National l’s trip to the United States.

29. On or about September 12, 2016, WEAD and BENTON spoke twice on their cell phones for a total of approximately eight mimites.

30. On or about September 13, 2016, Foreign National 2 emailed WEAD: “Doug, is there any news about [Political Candidate 1]?” WEAD then responded to Foreign National 2: “My Source says yes it will happen but no details yet.”

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They were similarly coy about dummying up a $100,000 invoice payable to Benton’s company to get their foreign friend the coveted photo op with Trump on September 22, 2016.

“Perhaps I am misunderstanding you. I thought you said that [Foreign National 1], would not be wiring any money,” Wead emailed the Russian’s assistant on September 16. “But whomever wires the money needs to have an invoice. So to whom do they send the invoice? What is the name of the person or company or bank that needs an invoice?”

Wead and Benton then talked on the phone for three minutes, after which Wead dutifully produced an email documenting “the plan” for their Russian client to support Benton’s company: “[Foreign National 1] has the vision to make this work.. .He is willing to hire consultants here who can help him. And he is willing to donate to charities and NGO ‘5 [sic] in the USA who would participate with such a program over there.”

So they sent the “invoice,” the Russian client wired the money, and Benton sent $25,000 to the joint fundraising committee, pocketing the $75,000 for himself. KA-CHING!

When the committees asked about the source of the funds, Benton claimed that he “bought the tickets and gifted them to [WEAD] and [Foreign National 1], so the money comes from me.”

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Spoiler Alert: ….

And in case you didn’t catch that math, Benton and Wead put this fakakta plan into action literally four months after Benton was convicted of campaign finance crimes related to the 2012 presidential campaign.

Indictment


Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.