Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Thursday there was "absolutely" no plot among his campaign staffers to mislead voters ahead of the 2012 Iowa caucuses.

Rather, Paul maintains federal prosecutors are spinning a simple error into a sinister conspiracy to win convictions in a public corruption case against three of his former campaign staff, Paul said outside the federal courthouse in Des Moines.

He called the case an "overreach" by the U.S. Department of Justice that has wasted "millions" in taxpayer money.

"I think our government has purposefully misled the public in pursuing this case and trying to paint something that is extreme and way out of order," Paul said shortly after he testified. "I'm hoping and praying that this trial may be able to put this behind us, because that is the only form of justice that I can see."

Testimony from the former Libertarian-leaning U.S. congressman came during the third day of the trial against campaign chairman Jesse Benton, campaign manager John Tate and deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari. The three political operatives face a range of charges stemming from accusations that former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson was paid $73,000 to endorse Paul days ahead of the caucuses.

Prosecutors contend that the operatives designed a plan to pay Sorenson by filtering the money through a third-party video and audio production company, a move that would keep the lawmaker's name hidden from public campaign expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Sorenson had previously served as the Iowa chair for the presidential campaign of then-U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who publicly accused Sorenson of being plied with cash after he flipped his loyalty to Paul.

Among the charges, each man faces counts of conspiracy, causing false records and causing false campaign expenditure reports.

In the interview, Paul suggested that the snafu was the fault of a campaign worker who mistakenly mislabeled the payments intended for Sorenson as "audio/visual" expenses in the expenditure reports, a claim made by at least one defense attorney in the trial.

He said the Federal Election Commission — it's the federal agency with authority to police campaign finance issues — has shown no interest in using its civil enforcement power in the matter, though the agency received a complaint from a former Bachmann operative in 2014.

"If there was an infraction on reporting, the FEC should do something, but they've never investigated," he said. "They've never asked any questions. So, to me it's a total outrage. Taxpayers have spent millions of dollars, and it looks like its a technical thing about filling out a form. (Prosecutors) concocted this extreme theory that doesn't hold water."

But former FEC attorney Lawrence Noble said Paul is wrong to suggest that no violation happened just because the federal agency has reportedly shown little interest.

The agency has been slow to enforce the law in recent years, said Noble, now general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. The agency is crippled by its system of taking cases based on votes from a six-person commission made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, he said.

The center sued the FEC on Friday for turning down cases that Noble believes show clear violations of campaign finance law, he said.

"The FEC has developed a real reputation for not enforcing the law," he said. "If there is a complaint filed, it could sit there for a very long time. … You can't read anything into the fact that the FEC has not done anything about it."

The trial is also a family affair for Paul, because one of his granddaughters is married to Benton. His vocal support for the three aides came after he sat through a portion of testimony Thursday morning from Karen LoStrocco, an FBI special agent who led the investigation into the payments.

Prosecutors showed an email between Benton and Tate hashing out how to respond to Bachmann's bribery allegation after Sorenson's endorsement Dec. 28, 2011. Emails also showed Benton telling journalists that the campaign would not give Sorenson any money.

Another email shown to jurors during LoStrocco's testimony featured all three operatives discussing a $25,000 wire transfer that prosecutors argue was intended for Sorenson.

Still, Paul responded "absolutely not" when asked by the Register whether he believed the operatives were engaged in a cover-up.

The trial is the second in the case, after a trial against Benton and Tate ended with mixed results in October. Paul testified for the prosecution in that case as well, telling jurors that he never put stock in endorsements.

Prosecutors argued that the candidate put such a low value on getting endorsements that Benton, Kesari and Tate had to go behind his back to woo Sorenson.

Prosecutors subpoenaed Paul to come to Des Moines from Texas to testify Thursday, but told him shortly before proceedings began in the morning that they would not be calling him, he said. Instead, U.S. District Court Judge John Jarvey allowed the operatives' attorneys to call him as a witness for their defense.

"It's the government that dragged me up here … and they canceled me," Paul said.