Kent Sorenson pleads guilty to accepting payments to switch support

[Galileo Galilei]

Just a little FYI here: there was no bribery and Sorenson was not charged with taking bribes. It is not illegal to give money to campaign people for services rendered. The Feds are cooperating with Sorenson for other technical charges but not for bribery.

 

[New York For Paul]

Some of us saw this coming a long time ago and said the campaign staff should be revamped. Much of the old Ron Paul staff is running the Rand Paul operation. Already, Rand got kicked out of the Washington Times for plagerism and now there are bribery charges and convictions. The average voters is not going to be happy and Rand's opponents will milk this for all it is worth.

The idiots appeared to puts lots of information in emails and there are tape recordings. Who knows how much worse this gets. Instead of talking about issues, the media will be talking about scandal.

 

[jjdoyle]

Just a little FYI here: there was no bribery and Sorenson was not charged with taking bribes. It is not illegal to give money to campaign people for services rendered. The Feds are cooperating with Sorenson for other technical charges but not for bribery.

The FEC is still investigating Ron Paul 2012 on charges of bribery apparently, as the article I linked above stated.
Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty to:
"A former Iowa state senator pleaded guilty Wednesday to concealing campaign expenditures and obstructing justice as part of an endorsement-for-pay scheme that roiled the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2012.

Kent Sorenson, of Milo, Iowa, admitted in federal district court that former Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign secretly paid him $73,000 after he dramatically dropped his backing of Rep. Michele Bachmann in late 2011 and endorsed Paul’s White House bid, saying at the time that Bachmann was no longer a viable candidate.
A furious Bachmann charged then that Sorenson was being paid to flip his support to Paul -- an accusation that Sorenson, Paul and his campaign officials all denied.


But in court papers filed Wednesday, Sorenson acknowledged that he had been paid by both presidential campaigns."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...uilty-in-ron-paul-endorsement-for-pay-scheme/

 

[Galileo Galilei]

The FEC is still investigating Ron Paul 2012 on charges of bribery apparently, as the article I linked above stated.
Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty to:
"A former Iowa state senator pleaded guilty Wednesday to concealing campaign expenditures and obstructing justice as part of an endorsement-for-pay scheme that roiled the Iowa Republican caucuses in 2012.

Kent Sorenson, of Milo, Iowa, admitted in federal district court that former Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign secretly paid him $73,000 after he dramatically dropped his backing of Rep. Michele Bachmann in late 2011 and endorsed Paul’s White House bid, saying at the time that Bachmann was no longer a viable candidate.
A furious Bachmann charged then that Sorenson was being paid to flip his support to Paul -- an accusation that Sorenson, Paul and his campaign officials all denied.


But in court papers filed Wednesday, Sorenson acknowledged that he had been paid by both presidential campaigns."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...uilty-in-ron-paul-endorsement-for-pay-scheme/

OK, and as I said, none of these charges or investigations are for bribery. Paying for an endorsement is not bribery. The crime is concealing the money flow. The feds are looking for some technical charges to draw in Benton or others. Kesari looks like he will be charged but it could end there.

 

[New York For Paul]

The fact that we are having these discussions will cost Rand Paul millions in lost donations and thousands of volunteers. The campaign staffers did a huge disservice to Ron Paul and Rand Paul.

 

[jjdoyle]

OK, and as I said, none of these charges or investigations are for bribery. Paying for an endorsement is not bribery. The crime is concealing the money flow. The feds are looking for some technical charges to draw in Benton or others. Kesari looks like he will be charged but it could end there.

Doesn't matter if you call it bribery or not, it was 100% illegal and the campaign knew it. If Sorenson faces $500,000 in fines for his charges, what do you think the campaign will face?
And as I stated before, this could cost Rand Iowa, since politics is VERY local.

 

[PaleoPaul]

I wonder if Ron Paul's granddaughter will be looking for a divorce attorney on Tuesday, in case the sh*t hits the fan...

 

[kylejack]

From the OpenSecrets article.


The Paul campaign’s 2012 expenditures reports show that $82,375 was paid to a Hyattsville, Md.-based video company called Interactive Communications, Inc. According to bank records discovered during the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee investigation, Sorenson received payments from a firm called “ICT, Inc”, based at the same Hyattsville address, that closely matched the payments the campaign made.
For example, the campaign reported to the Federal Election Commission that on Feb. 8, 2012, it paid $38,125 to Interactive Communications. On Feb. 9, ICT Inc. wired Sorenson $33,000. Then, on April 3, the campaign paid Interactive Communications $17,770, and on April 9, ICT wired Sorenson $16,000.
On May 4, the campaign paid Interactive Communications $8,850, and on the same day ICT wired Sorenson $8,000. The same thing happened twice more, with Sorenson pocketing a total of $73,000 from ICT Inc. between February and July of 2012. The Ron Paul presidential campaign paid Interactive Communications $83,375 over the same period.

As someone who donated to the Ron Paul 2012 campaign, I'm outraged.

 

[jjdoyle]

From the OpenSecrets article.


The Paul campaign’s 2012 expenditures reports show that $82,375 was paid to a Hyattsville, Md.-based video company called Interactive Communications, Inc. According to bank records discovered during the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee investigation, Sorenson received payments from a firm called “ICT, Inc”, based at the same Hyattsville address, that closely matched the payments the campaign made.
For example, the campaign reported to the Federal Election Commission that on Feb. 8, 2012, it paid $38,125 to Interactive Communications. On Feb. 9, ICT Inc. wired Sorenson $33,000. Then, on April 3, the campaign paid Interactive Communications $17,770, and on April 9, ICT wired Sorenson $16,000.
On May 4, the campaign paid Interactive Communications $8,850, and on the same day ICT wired Sorenson $8,000. The same thing happened twice more, with Sorenson pocketing a total of $73,000 from ICT Inc. between February and July of 2012. The Ron Paul presidential campaign paid Interactive Communications $83,375 over the same period.

As someone who donated to the Ron Paul 2012 campaign, I'm outraged.

And you have every right to be. We are/were not supposed to be the same as other campaigns, and politicians. Did you see the "open letter" article posted just today, now bringing up a possible payoff for a sexual harassment complaint?
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?458925-An-Open-Letter-to-Ron-Paul

 

[kylejack]

Thanks for the link. Here's the video of Ron saying nobody paid Sorenson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH3Dd4CfJLg#t=8m45s

So either someone is going to fall on a sword or we'll have to see how high knowledge of this bribe goes.

 

[Galileo Galilei]

Doesn't matter if you call it bribery or not, it was 100% illegal and the campaign knew it. If Sorenson faces $500,000 in fines for his charges, what do you think the campaign will face?
And as I stated before, this could cost Rand Iowa, since politics is VERY local.

I don't think this will affect Rand Paul. I wouldn't get too worried about it.

 

[kylejack]

Benton's looking pretty strongly implicated in the bribe. It will be interesting to see if he falls on a sword or if he cuts a deal to implicate others in the campaign or even Ron Paul himself.

 

[Galileo Galilei]

Benton's looking pretty strongly implicated in the bribe. It will be interesting to see if he falls on a sword or if he cuts a deal to implicate others in the campaign or even Ron Paul himself.

There was no "bribe". Nor can anyone be charged with knowing about a non-bribe. The charge the feds might be looking at is knowing that a campaign finance report was not filled out accurately. However:

* Sorenson was not charged with taking bribes even though the prosecutors know he took money for endorsements from both the Paul and Bachmann campaigns.

* Sorenson pleaded guilty to "causing a finance report to be filled out inaccurately". That is goods news for Jesse Benton, not bad news, because it shows that Sorenson was culpable for the bad finance report.

Basically, Kasari looks like he will be charged with something, not Benton.

 

[kylejack]

There was no "bribe". Nor can anyone be charged with knowing about a non-bribe. The charge the feds might be looking at is knowing that a campaign finance report was not filled out accurately. However:

* Sorenson was not charged with taking bribes even though the prosecutors know he took money for endorsements from both the Paul and Bachmann campaigns.

* Sorenson pleaded guilty to "causing a finance report to be filled out inaccurately". That is goods news for Jesse Benton, not bad news, because it shows that Sorenson was culpable for the bad finance report.

Basically, Kasari looks like he will be charged with something, not Benton.

Sorenson plead down and was granted immunity. Immunity generally means they intend to use him to prosecute someone else.

 

[klamath]

Sorenson plead down and was granted immunity. Immunity generally means they intend to use him to prosecute someone else.

Pretty much that. The fact that it involves the campaign manager for the senate minority leader will make it very valuable to push every angle.

 

[jjdoyle]

Sorenson plead down and was granted immunity. Immunity generally means they intend to use him to prosecute someone else.

And the campaign has been sitting on lots of cash since the campaign ended, and in the recent FEC report had paid four different law/litigation firms several thousand dollars each. One of them, based on its website, apparently does cases in trying to get fees/fines reduced.

If Sorenson is facing $500,000 in potential fines, I can only imagine what charges would be directly against a campaign that was filing the FEC reports.

 

[Galileo Galilei]

Sorenson plead down and was granted immunity. Immunity generally means they intend to use him to prosecute someone else.

Yes, they will try to prosecute someone else, not likely Jesse Benton and not for bribery. Also, the best snitches snitch BEFORE they are charged with a crime. Sorenson is not only charged with crimes, but convicted of 2 of them. Sorenson is probably a fairly worthless actual witness, they will have to have physical evidence or other witnesses to nail anyone else.

The reason Sorenson is a bad witness is because he must have resisted the prosecution initially, that is why he was charged and then convicted. Since he resisted prosecution, he likely made numerous statements contrary to what the feds wanted him to say before he flipped. Hence, a defense attorney can use the initial statements by Sorenson to defend others.

 

[Galileo Galilei]

And the campaign has been sitting on lots of cash since the campaign ended, and in the recent FEC report had paid four different law/litigation firms several thousand dollars each. One of them, base on the website, specifies in trying to get fees/fines reduced apparently.

If Sorenson is facing $500,000 in potential fines, I can only imagine what charges would be directly against a campaign that was filing the FEC reports.

Sorenson already took the blame for the faulty FEC report, he pleaded guilty to a specific crime of causing others to file a faulty FEC report.

 

[jjdoyle]

Sorenson already took the blame for the faulty FEC report, he pleaded guilty to a specific crime of causing others to file a faulty FEC report.

Yes, just because there is one that pleads, doesn't mean there won't be more. And we don't know what was in the sealed documents with his plea.
Also, there is a slight difference between a conviction and a plea agreement. We don't know yet if Sorenson will be convicted/punished by the judge yet, or if he is being offered some major leniency for his testimony and evidence against others.

 

[kylejack]

It sure looks like laundering money to me. Also, the articles I've read say buying an endorsement is illegal under Iowa law, at the very least. And I imagine this can't look good for the campaign treasurer either.