Jesse Benton was a Republican political operative who was convicted for his role in funneling an illegal Russian contribution to the 2016 Trump campaign.
His case is one of the very few criminal convictions directly resulting from schemes involving Russian money and the Trump campaign, though it did not implicate Trump or senior campaign staff in intentional wrongdoing. More broadly, Russian interference in the 2016 election was established through extensive investigations and reports by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Congress, and other credible sources.
Donald Trump Jr’s Connection to Russian Influence in the 2016 Presidential Campaign