The federal government has reindicted three former Ron Paul staffers, in charges related to secret payments to former Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson for his endorsement of Paul for president in late 2011, shortly before the 2012 Iowa Republican Caucuses. A trial last month ended in a hung jury and a new trial for the staffers is set for December 14.
Last month, charges against former campaign chair John Tate and campaign manager Jesse Benton, that included conspiracy, were dismissed. Judge John Jarvey ruled these counts were in violation of a limited immunity agreement the men made with government investigators in exchange for their knowledge of the payments to Sorenson. Prosecutors have reindicted Tate and Benton on these counts, without information obtained from the interviews with investigators.
A third staffer, former deputy campaign manager DimitriKesari, is being retried. At the first trial, Kesari was found guilty of causing financial records to be falsely reported to the Federal Election Commission. The jury was hung on three other counts, including conspiracy. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
"We were disappointed by the government's decision to retry Mr. Kesari on these charges. We think it was an unnecessary step," says Dimitri Kesari's attorney Jesse Binnall. "We really regret that Mr. Kesari is going to have to go through this process all over again."
In addition to the guilty and hung verdicts, Kesari was found not guilty of obstruction of justice.
All charges against Tate were dismissed before the first trial. Benton was found not guilty on a sole count, lying to the FBI. In addition to conspiracy, the new indictment charges both men with causing false records, causing false campaign expenditure reports and creating a scheme to deceive the U.S. government.
