Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

Two former Ron Paul presidential campaign aides will see no prison time for their roles in a plot to make hidden payments to an Iowa state senator in exchange for his endorsement.

Former campaign chairman Jesse Benton and campaign manager John Tate will instead spend two years on probation and pay a $10,000 fine for crimes that prosecutors said corrupted the 2012 Iowa caucus process. Prosecutors wanted the political operatives each sentenced to serve more than two years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge John Jarvey said prison sentences usually work best to deter future white-collar criminals. But he considered many factors before giving the men probation, including how much they have already suffered throughout the criminal case, he said.

"Nothing about this sentence is intended to diminish my respect for the decision to prosecute or the good work that the FBI did," Jarvey said before sentencing Tate.

Neither Benton nor Tate spoke with reporters as they left the federal courthouse in Des Moines. Benton smiled widely and held hands with his wife.

Former deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari, who was also convicted in the conspiracy, will be sentenced Wednesday morning.

The sentencing hearings signal a close is near to a strange saga in Iowa caucus history that began when then-Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson shockingly switched his allegiance from the campaign of former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to support Paul days before the first-in-the-nation contest. The switch prompted immediate allegations that Sorenson had been paid by the Paul campaign, which the conservative state senator denied in nationally broadcast television interviews.

But emails, financial records and other documents showed the campaign secretly paid $73,000 to a limited liability company controlled by Sorenson through a third-party video production company. Prosecutors argued the men used the scheme so that publicly available campaign expenditure records filed with the Federal Election Commission would show no payments to Sorenson.

There has been no sentencing hearing scheduled yet for Sorenson, who took a plea deal that required him to testify at trial against the three operatives.

Prosecutors Richard Pilger and Joseph Cooney urged the judge to send both Benton and Tate to prison.

To defend themselves against the allegations of a payoff after the surprising switch, the campaign workers and Sorenson told journalists and voters to check upcoming FEC filings. Benton and Tate knew that Sorenson's name would not appear, the prosecutors said.

That trick effectively "weaponized" the federal regulatory agency as part of their plot, the prosecutors said. Voters across the country have said during the current election cycle that they believe the "system is rigged," and this case shows why that attitude persists, Pilger said.

"They feel that behind the scenes, things have been rigged," he said.

But Benton told the judge before receiving the sentence that the criminal case has already tainted his career in politics. He and his wife have been forced to sell their home and go into debt, he said.

Benton told the judge he would find work as a copywriter if he were allowed to stay out of prison. "I've always worked very, very hard to try to be a good person, a good man and walk a righteous path," Benton said.

"It's been years of sleepless nights and public humiliation, time and time again," he told the judge. "The comfortable home that we always hoped to raise our children in, I don't know if we're going to have that."

Defense attorney Angela Campbell argued that national news coverage of the scandal had punished Benton enough.

Tate similarly asked the judge to spare him of a prison sentence at a hearing approximately an hour after Benton's hearing. "I would just simply ask for similar mercy from you for myself," he told Jarvey, after saying that he'd heard news of his former co-worker's sentence.

As part of their sentences, both men will be required to spend six months under house arrest, as well as complete 80 hours of community service each year during their probation. Each defendant can still appeal the jury's verdict, and prosecutors can appeal the sentences.

Ron Paul himself has remained publicly supportive of the aides. He testified as a defense witness at trial in late April, telling jurors that he was confident no employees of his campaign were trying to trick voters. In past testimony, he alleged that federal prosecutors timed the indictment to damage the presidential campaign of his son, Rand Paul.

Paying Sorenson ahead of the 2012 Republican caucus was not illegal. But the prosecutors argued the men violated campaign expenditure reporting and conspiracy laws in their attempt to keep the money hidden. Sorenson violated Iowa Senate ethics rules in accepting the money and was forced to resign in October 2013 in the wake of the growing scandal.

Defense attorneys representing all three campaign aides did not deny that payments were arranged for Sorenson. Rather, a lawyer who represented Kesari, argued that the state senator did legitimate work, including recording robocalls and travelling to South Carolina for a campaign event ahead of the Republican primary there.

Throughout the case the defendants argued that election law is still unclear about whether a vendor to a political campaign or an operative can be paid through a third party. But Jarvey said during Benton's sentencing hearing that he does not doubt the hidden payments were illegal.

"I haven't believed and do not believe that there is an argument to be made about the legality of this conduct," he said.

Benton and Tate were both convicted of conspiracy, causing false records, causing false campaign expenditure reporting and false statements.

Kesari has been convicted of conspiracy, causing false campaign expenditure reports, false statements and causing false records.

The three aides were first indicted on a variety of charges, but the counts against Tate were initially dismissed for technical reasons before a trial that began in October. Prosecutors sought a new indictment after the first trial ended with mixed results.

Grant Woodard, a Des Moines defense lawyer and former Democratic campaign operative, said the case will loom large over political operatives in the future, regardless of the fact that neither Benton nor Tate are going to prison.

"I think it's still an important warning shot to political operatives and political candidates everywhere that you can be charged with these violations," he said.