A federal jury has acquitted Jesse Benton, former head of a super PAC backing Republican presidential candidate and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, on the charge that he made a false statement to officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation during a criminal investigation.
The decision, announced Thursday, comes less than two weeks after Benton was acquitted of four other charges related to the alleged bribing of ex-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson during Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign due to prosecutorial errors during a federal grand jury trial.
Benton was indicted on five counts in early August related to the scheme to pay Sorenson and statements he made to the FBI. The charges are unrelated to the younger Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Upon leaving the Southern District of Iowa federal courthouse after the not-guilty verdict was handed down, Benton reportedly told local members of the press: “God is great.”
“We are pleased to learn that Jesse Benton has been vindicated today of wrongdoing,” Benton’s attorney, Roscoe Howard, added in a statement to the Washington Post. “The jury members worked diligently through the information presented to them and their decision reinforces that he was wrongly charged — and always has been.
Dimitrios Kesari, a political operative also charged in the case, was convicted by the same jury of causing a false record. He was simultaneously acquitted of a charge of obstruction of justice.
According to The Des Moines Register, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on other charges including conspiracy, participating in false statement schemes and causing fabricated campaign expenditure reports.
Sen. Paul reacted to Benton’s acquittal Thursday in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“I am happy that justice has been served,” he said.
