Feds Say Ron Paul Inc Operatives Planned to Smear Kent Sorenson

Another piece of information has seeped out in the ongoing saga, Ron Paul Inc. Operatives Under Indictment.

Ross Choma at Mother Jones reports that the Feds, who have never been accused of being conservative when stating their fears as to what defendants will when on trial, have apparently told the court that they fear what the operatives might do with transcripts of Grand Jury testimomy.

Choma explains:

Since last week's indictments of three top political aides to Ron and Rand Paul, new details have emerged about the Ron Paul campaign's scheme in 2012 to buy the endorsement of Kent Sorenson, who was then an influential Republican state senator in Iowa. In the latest court filing, federal prosecutors assert that the Paul aides planned to smear Sorenson if he refused to accept a bribe. This case will likely continue to dog presidential candidate Rand Paul, who has at times employed all three men. Two of the indicted aides, Jesse Benton (who is married to Rand Paul's niece) and John Tate, were running the main super-PAC supporting Rand Paul's presidential campaign. Following the indictments, each of them took a leave of absence from the super-PAC...

Prosecutors are generally required to share their evidence with a defendant to allow him or her to prepare for a trial. But on Thursday, Justice Department lawyers asked the federal judge in charge of the case for permission to withhold from these defendants copies of certain sensitive documents, such as the grand jury transcript and witness statements. The defendants will be allowed to review the information, but the prosecutors don't want to hand over the material. They say they have reason to believe the defendants might leak sensitive documents to the media. During the pre-indictment inquiry, the prosecutors claim, investigators found emails showing that the three Paul aides were prepared to leak documents to harm Sorenson in 2012 if they couldn't obtain his endorsement for Ron Paul.

"Those communications show that the defendants, who are career political operatives, were willing to leak sensitive documents regarding Sorenson to the press to suit their own ends," Raymond Hulser, chief of the Department of Justice's public integrity division, stated. "That history gives the government concern as to what the defendants (as opposed to their counsel) might do with copies of interview reports and grand jury transcripts of Sorenson and the other witnesses in this case."...

Jesse Benton's lawyer says the smear attempt was just a knee jerk reaction.Here's Choma again:

The lawyer for Jesse Benton has responded to the government's accusation that his client planned to leak documents to smear Sorenson if he did not agree to endorse Ron Paul. In a filing made to the federal court, Benton's attorney, Roscoe Howard, said prosecutors are referring to an email Benton sent in late 2011, around the time Sorenson switched from endorsing the Bachmann campaign to endorsing the Paul campaign. In the email, Howard noted, Benton "threatened to expose Mr. Sorenson, believing that Mr. Sorenson was trying to blackmail the 2012 RP Campaign, if Mr. Sorenson did not make up his mind on whether to commit to the Ron Paul Campaign."

Howard wrote that it was a "a knee-jerk, emotional reaction" and pointed out that Benton never followed through.

  -RW