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A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Republican operative who had been pardoned by Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.

The District of Columbia Circuit Court rejected an appeal by Jesse Benton, a former senior aide to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, of his November 2022 conviction for orchestrating a scheme to conceal a $100,000 donation from a Russian national to his GOP consulting firm — and pocketing most of it.

Russian businessman Roman Vasilenko wired the money under his own name to the consulting firm, but Benton kept $75,000 for himself and gave $25,000 under his name to the presidential campaign for Trump, who posed for a photo with Vasilenko. Benton then filed a false report with the Federal Election Commission to conceal the source of the funds, the court found.

The Trump campaign was not aware of the true source of that donation.

Benton had appealed the conviction, saying Trump's 2020 pardon should have prevented the jury from hearing about his previous election crimes before convicting him of the newer charges.

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However, prosecutors argued that the unusual manner in which Trump handed out pardons by sidestepping the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney should have allowed them to present evidence of Benton's previous conviction for bribing an Iowa politician to switch his endorsement in 2011 to Ron Paul's long-shot presidential campaign.

The 45-year-old Benton, who is married to Ron Paul's granddaughter, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for that straw donor scheme.

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Former President Donald Trump has a new demeaning nickname for Maggie Haberman, the New York Times reporter who revealed unflattering details about his criminal trial behavior and challenged his excuses for a lack of protesters outside.

The former president laid out his new insults Tuesday in a lengthy Truth Social rant in which he also argued his supporters had been blocked by police from gathering outside the Manhattan court house where his hush money trial is unfolding.

"Thousands of people were turned away from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan by steel stanchions and police, literally blocks from the tiny side door from where I enter and leave," Trump wrote. "It is an armed camp to keep people away."

This is a repeat of an earlier claim debunked by reporters at the scene who say it is blatantly false.

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"Maggot Hagerman of The Failing New York Times, falsely reported that I was disappointed with the crowds," Trump declared. "No, I’m disappointed with Maggot, and her lack of writing skill, and that some of these many police aren’t being sent to Columbia and NYU to keep the schools open and the students safe. The Legal Scholars call the case a Scam that should never have been brought. I call it Election Interference and a personal hit job by a conflicted and corrupt Judge who shouldn’t be allowed to preside over this Political Hoax. New York Justice is being reduced to ashes, and the World is breathlessly watching. Hopefully, Appellate Courts can save it, and all of the companies that are fleeing to other jurisdictions. They can no longer take a chance on New York Justice!"

Haberman, who has been covering Trump for years, long enjoyed close access to him while he was in the White House, even posing with him for a smiling photo. But Trump's attitude toward Haberman has soured as she has covered his behavior in the courtroom, including his embarrassing inability to stay awake.

Trump's other claim in the post, that huge crowds of his supporters turned up to rally for him in Manhattan and were turned away by police, also appears not to be true, as NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard posted video footage of the streets around the courthouse open to traffic, and barely anyone demonstrating in support of the former president.

Haberman herself has also debunked the idea that local streets were closed off during the trial, a point that has further enraged Trump.