On Friday, the US Department of Justice announced the conviction of a US political consultant who illegally transferred money from a Russian citizen to Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
According to court documents, Russian citizen Roman Vasilenko, a former Russian Navy naval officer turned commercial, dreamed in 2016 of attending a campaign event with presidential candidate Donald Trump to take a photo with him. For this he was ready to pay 100,000 dollars. Through American evangelical marketer Doug Weed, Vasilenko reached out to Jesse Benton, who was then on the Trump campaign’s fundraising committee.
It is against the law to accept foreign donations for US presidential campaigns. So Benton came up with the following scheme: A $100,000 foreign transfer from Vasilenko went to the account of Benton’s political consulting firm. To cover up the illegal scheme, Benton reported the deal as a consulting fee. At the same time, Benton acted as a fictitious donor and purchased a $25,000 ticket for Vasilenko for a Republican National Committee (RNC) event in September 2016. Benton appropriated the remaining $75,000.
At the same time, Vasilenko was also delighted: thanks to the donation, he received a photo with Trump and an entrance to the “business round table” with the future president.
According to the Washington Post, Benton was previously involved in another criminal case related to Trump campaign finance, but was pardoned by Trump in 2020 when he was already President of the United States. And six months later, Benton was charged with six counts related to disclosing a money transfer scheme to Vasilenko.
The case was handled by the FBI regional office in San Diego.
According to the Washington Post, Benton began his career as a libertarian, working as an aide to former Congressman Ron Paul while married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter. In political circles, Benton rose to prominence after working for Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, whom he helped elect to the United States Senate from Kentucky in 2010. In 2014, Jesse Benton was hired by the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his congressional re-election campaign.
