163861P.pdf   05/11/2018  United States  v.  Jesse Benton
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-3861
                          and No:  16-3862
                          and No:  16-3864
   U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines   
   [PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Loken, Circuit Judge, and Nelson, 
   District Judge] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law. The district court properly interpreted the 
   reporting provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act; the jury was 
   entitled to infer from the facts presented that defendants Benton and Tate 
   had knowingly and willfully caused Election Commission reports to be filed 
   which falsely portrayed a $25,000 payment to an Iowa State Senator for his 
   endorsement of Ron Paul in the 2012 presidential primary campaign as 
   payments to an audio/visual vendor; applying 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1519 to the 
   facts of this case was proper, and defendants' convictions for making and 
   filing false reports of campaign expenditures are affirmed; defendants' 
   convictions under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001(a)(1) are affirmed, as the false 
   statements in the reports were material; defendants' conspiracy 
   convictions are affirmed; claim that convictions on the counts was 
   multiplicitous rejected; no error in denying defendant Tate's motion to 
   sever; no error in rejecting defendant Benton's proposed jury 
   instructions; various challenges to evidentiary rulings (exclusion of 
   defense experts, admission of the check used to make payment; admission of 
   an email) rejected; claim of a Jencks Act violation rejected.