Free Republic

Inmate No. 15000-030 is released into the frigid January morning at 8:46, a gray custodial suit of sweatpants and long-sleeved thermal clinging to his immense frame, a bushy salt-and-pepper beard wrapping around his face, a guard escorting him with a high-powered rifle slung over his right shoulder... At the time of his political rise, the Iowa GOP was being subdivided into three sects: libertarian, evangelical, and establishment. The latter two factions had long warred for control of the state party, but it was the “liberty movement” that was muscularly ascendant in 2008 thanks to Ron Paul’s iconoclastic campaign... He believed...

Three campaign advisers to 2012 presidential candidate Ron Paul were convicted Thursday in a federal case alleging they conspired to cover up the campaign’s payments to a former Iowa state senator who had agreed to endorse their boss. Prosecutors said it is illegal to cause a campaign to file inaccurate spending documents. They’ve pursued charges since July 2015 when a grand jury first indicted the men. Paul’s campaign chairman Jesse Benton, campaign manager John Tate and deputy manager Dimitri Kesari argued they broke no laws when they paid a video production company, which passed on $73,000 to former Sen. Kent...

Gannet paper, link only: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/19/kent-sorenson-sentencing-iowa-caucus-2012-paul/23684721/

The bribery scandal surrounding former Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) 2012 presidential bid is threatening to damage his son’s 2016 White House prospects. The saga took down Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) likely campaign manager, Jesse Benton, who was running Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) reelection bid. And the implications of wrongdoing two years ago could still further trickle down and hobble the younger Paul’s developing presidential campaign apparatus. Benton, a longtime aide to both Pauls, resigned Friday from the GOP Senate leader’s campaign amid controversy sparked by former Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson’s admission in court that he accepted tens...

Jesse Benton, the GOP political strategist spearheading Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign, resigned from his post Friday amid new details about an ongoing federal investigation into an endorsement-pay-scheme involving a 2012 presidential campaign he oversaw. In a statement issued Friday evening, Benton cited “inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors about me and my role in past campaigns that are politically motivated, unfair and, most importantly, untrue.” “The press accounts and rumors are particularly hurtful because they are false,” Benton wrote. “However, what is most troubling to me is that they risk unfairly undermining and becoming a distraction...

DES MOINES, Iowa — A former state lawmaker accused of accepting payments to change his support to a different presidential candidate in the 2012 election cycle has pleaded guilty to two federal charges. The Department of Justice says Kent Sorenson, a former Republican state senator, admitted to receiving “under-the-table” payments from Ron Paul’s campaign committee in return for switching his support and services from candidate Michele Bachmann. The payments totaled about $73,000 and were made monthly in the amount of around $8,000. They were concealed by first sending the money to a film production company, then through another company —...

FBI officials executed a search warrant at former state Sen. Kent Sorenson’s home two weeks ago and confiscated computers and other materials connected to presidential campaign politics, his lawyer said Wednesday. “We were not notified that he was the target of any investigation,” attorney Theodore Sporer said. “They took computers and things that would be used to verify or validate communications with presidential entities.” Earlier this year, a report from a state special investigator suggested that two presidential campaigns — those of Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul — may have violated federal election laws by skirting rules to funnel money...

An Iowa state senator resigned Wednesday after a special investigator found it likely he violated ethics rules by taking money from political entities connected to former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and then denying he’d done so. Sen. Kent Sorenson told The Associated Press that he had already decided he would not run for re-election, and that his resignation was best for his family. He said his decision was “absolutely not” an admission of wrongdoing. … His resignation came after attorney Mark Weinhardt said in a report released earlier in the day that it was “manifestly clear” Sorenson negotiated payments in...

DES MOINES — A state senator will push for public hearings on the death penalty in the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives as he files legislation to bring capital punishment back to Iowa. Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, has championed the idea of reintroducing the death penalty in Iowa since the abduction and killing of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, this summer in Evansdale. Elizabeth’s parents joined Sorenson and parents of other missing and murdered children at a Capitol news conference, where the senator outlined five pieces of legislation he plans to introduce this session. Iowa abolished the...

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign lost another high-ranking staff member on Thursday after that staffer defended another former Bachmann official's defection to a rival campaign. Wes Enos, Bachmann's political director, has left the campaign, spokeswoman Alice Stewart confirmed to NBC News on Thursday evening. The resignation comes on the heels of last night's announcement by Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who had served as Bachmann's Iowa chairman, that he had stepped down from that position to support Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign instead. Yesterday, Enos publicly defended Sorenson, an Iowa state Senator, against charges voiced by Bachmann that Sorenson had...

By now you probably already know that Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chair, Kent Sorenson, suddenly turned round and endorsed Ron Paul last night. And I have to tell you, I’m disgusted. I know Kent Sorenson. We have each other’s private phone numbers and I also have to tell you that I texted him last night and for the first time ever, he has not returned my text. I have left him voicemail — no return call. ... Did he originally back Bachmann because he thought she could win? What does this say about him? ... The campaigns in question don’t...

The former Michele Bachmann supporter who defected to the Ron Paul team this week said he was "never offered a nickel" by Paul's campaign, disputing the Minnesota congresswoman's claim that he was bought off. Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who was a Bachmann Iowa co-chairman before he resigned Wednesday and endorsed Paul, accused Bachmann of fabricating a story about a conversation they had before he bolted. Bachmann had said in a radio interview Thursday that Sorsenson told her he was offered "a lot of money" by Paul's people. "That's why he left," Bachmann claimed, repeating an allegation she made the...

Talk about fairweather friends. Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), who was Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s state campaign chairman, endorsed Texas Rep. Ron Paul Wednesday night. At a rally in Des Moines, Sorenson told the crowd, “We’re going to take Ron Paul all the way to the White House.” He did not tell Bachmann of his decision until he was en route to the Paul rally, billed as an event for veterans. “This is hard,” he said of his decision to leave Bachmann, explaining that he felt obligated to defend Paul against the Republican establishment. He elaborated in a statement,...

Breaking: Michele Bachmann Iowa campaign co-chair endorses Ron Paul