Jesse Benton played leading roles in the presidential campaigns of Ron and Rand Paul and worked briefly as Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager.
An appeals court upheld the conviction of veteran GOP operative Jesse Benton for funneling Russian money into Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Benton was previously pardoned by Trump for other campaign finance related charges.
In addition to his time working for Ron and Rand Paul, Benton managed McConnell’s 2014 reelection campaign in Kentucky, helping the Senate minority leader stave off a primary challenge from his right. But Benton but left his role before the general election amid an investigation into campaign finance violations unrelated to his work for McConnell.
“The government is free to exercise its discretion to prosecute under either or both statutes,” wrote Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee to the court, for a unanimous three-judge panel. The panel’s other judges, Florence Pan and Bradley Garcia, are both appointees of President Joe Biden.
The appeals court, however, rejected that argument as well, noting that prosecutors are permitted to introduce evidence of other “bad acts” in trial under certain circumstances. And while Trump’s pardon of Benton could be seen as an “act of grace” by the outgoing president, Trump did not claim that Benton was actually innocent of the charges against him.
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