Convicted Ron Paul operative in legal trouble again; tried to win foreign donations for Trump

An undercover sting by British newspaper journalists could be serious trouble for a former Ron Paul campaign operative who's on probation after being convicted in an Iowa caucus payola scandal.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice Public Integrity Section want to bring Republican operative Jesse Benton back to court after a news report in October accused him of trying to win foreign donations for a super PAC supporting President-elect Donald Trump.

The report from the Telegraph newspaper detailed how its journalists posed as associates of a Chinese benefactor to entice PACs to accept money, allegedly in violation of laws that prohibit foreign donations in elections.

The journalists captured Benton in emails and on video in a New York hotel suggesting that he could funnel $2 million toward a pro-Trump PAC through his own public affairs company to hide its origin, according to the report. That Oct. 13 meeting in New York came less than a month after Benton was sentenced in a Des Moines courtroom to two years probation for convictions stemming from his work as chairman on Paul's 2012 presidential campaign.

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/12/23/convicted-ron-paul-operative-headed-back-iowa-court/95491734/