WaPo reports:
The federal probe that resulted in a guilty plea this week by a former Iowa state senator who was secretly paid to endorse two Republican presidential candidates in the 2012 campaign is ongoing -- and could implicate the political operatives who were involved in routing payments to him, according to people familiar with the case...
One focus by federal prosecutors now appears to be on people involved in Paul’s 2012 operation...
Two sealed documents were filed in court as part of the case, a possible indication that Sorenson is cooperating with federal prosecutors as part of a broader investigation....
Sorenson’s attorney, F. Montgomery Brown, declined to comment on whether the former state senator had such a deal. But he and others involved in the matter said the case is continuing.
“It’s my understanding that this an ongoing investigation,” Brown said.
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr confirmed that the investigation is ongoing.
Jesse Benton, a Republican strategist who is married to Paul’s granddaughter, served as chairman of Paul’s 2012 campaign. He is now running Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign and is expected to play a significant role in a 2016 presidential bid by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
It is unclear if Benton knew about the payments made to Sorenson, but emails published last year by the TheIowaRepublican.com and OpenSecrets.org show that Benton wrote to a Sorenson associate in the fall of 2011, asking if the then-state senator would be “joining our team.”
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