The FBI on Wednesday indicted three people with close ties to the 2012 presidential campaign of former Texas Rep. Ron Paul and his son Rand Paul's 2016 presidential campaign.
After months of investigation, Jesse Benton, John Tate and Dimitri Kesari were charged with multiple counts including conspiracy, filing false campaign expenditure reports and submitting false records to obstruct an investigation. Benton, a member of the Paul family by marriage, was also charged with making false statements to the FBI, reported The Hill.
All three worked on Ron Paul's presidential campaign in 2012, and Tate and Benton are the top people at the pro-Rand Paul super PAC America's Liberty, which is championing his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination. Kesari also worked for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., according to Breitbart.
The indictment alleges that Tate, when working as Ron Paul's campaign manager, and Kesari, Paul's former deputy campaign manager, paid more than $70,000 to former Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson to withdraw his endorsement of former Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was also running for president, and endorse Paul instead.
The three men allegedly transferred money to Sorenson "by recording the expenses in Federal Election Commission filings as audiovisual-related purchases that first passed through a production company before getting transferred to an account controlled by Sorenson," reports The Hill.
In a statement announcing the indictment, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell said that federal campaign finance laws "are intended to ensure the integrity and transparency of the federal election process."
"When political operatives make under-the-table payments to buy an elected official's political support, it undermines public confidence in our entire political system," she said.
Ron Paul suggested the government was attempting to derail Rand's presidential ambitions.
"I am extremely disappointed in the government's decision," he said in a statement to MSNBC. "I think the timing of this indictment is highly suspicious given the fact that the first primary debate is tomorrow. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those involved. I will not be commenting further on this matter at this time."
Benton's lawyer, Roscoe Howard, echoed similar sentiment: "That this indictment is now suddenly announced on the eve of the first Republican Presidential debate strongly supports our belief that this is a politically motivated prosecution designed to serve a political agenda, not to achieve justice," Howard said in an email to The Hill.
"Mr. Benton is eager to get before an impartial judge and jury who will quickly recognize this for what he believes it is: Character assassination for political gain," he said.
Rand will appear in the first Republican presidential debate Thursday night at 9 p.m. EST on Fox News.
