Oddball, excerpted from,
GOP operative sentenced in scheme to funnel Russian money to Trump campaign (msn.com) :
- The Russian national wired $100,000 to Benton's political consulting firm to make an illegal foreign contribution. But Benton allegedly pocketed $75,000 and gave $25,000 to the campaign, falsely identifying himself as the donor.
- The campaign unknowingly filed reports with the FEC that inaccurately reported Benton as the source of the funds instead of the Russian national, per the Justice Department.
Of note: Neither Trump nor his campaign was aware of the Russian person's nationality, the DOJ said.
Flashback: Benton was previously convicted of filing false statements as part of a scheme to funnel money from Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign to an influential Iowa politician who backed Paul in the state's presidential caucus, Axios' Shawna Chen reports.