A former Iowa state senator who claimed
he was being investigated due his opposition to gay marriage has
pleaded guilty to taking tens of thousands of dollars to work on the
2012 presidential campaign of former Texas Representative Ron Paul.
Kent Sorenson has pled guilty to one
count of obstruction of justice and one count of causing a
presidential campaign to falsely report its expenditures to the
Federal Election Commission, according to Radio
Iowa.
In the fall of 2011, Sorenson, the
chairman of Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign for the Iowa
Caucuses, switched allegiances to the Paul campaign.
Sorenson has admitted that he jumped
ship in exchange for money. Prosecutors claim he was paid $73,000 to
work on Paul's campaign.
According to an Iowa Senate Ethics
Committee report released in October, Bachmann's campaign also paid
Sorenson to work on her presidential bid, a violation of Senate
rules. Sorenson resigned from the state Senate soon after release of
the report.
In an email to supporters sent in
October, Sorenson accused his attackers of coordinating a “witch
hunt” motivated by his public opposition to marriage equality and
support for passage of a constitutional amendment aimed at reversing
the Iowa Supreme Court's decision that struck down Iowa's restrictive
marriage laws.