Lobbyist Sam Patten, who pleaded guilty in August to failing to register as a foreign agent, will be sentenced on April 12.
The Wednesday order setting Patten’s sentencing date came just two days after prosecutors filed a status report on Patten’s cooperation entirely under seal. They similarly filed a status report under seal in early January. Such a move is uncommon and suggested that Patten was of high value to prosecutors or that they encountered an issue with his cooperation.
Patten’s upcoming sentencing date suggests that federal prosecutors have exhausted the lobbyist’s utility as a cooperating witness. Patten’s case was not handled by the special counsel’s office, but he cooperated with Robert Mueller’s probe as part of his plea deal.
Patten worked for some of the same Ukrainian clients as Paul Manafort, and he “pleaded guilty” to failing to register for work he did for Ukraine’s Opposition Bloc.
As part of his guilty plea, Patten also admitted to helping a Ukrainian politician buy a $50,000 ticket to President Trump’s inauguration using a straw donor — inauguration committees are banned from accepting donations from foreign entities.
There are so many sketchy characters associated with this administration it is hard to keep them straight.
ETA: It is also worth noting how many of them are cooperating.
Unlike with thieves, there’s no honor among thugs and grifters.
Why wouldn’t they? Trump hasn’t pardon any of them, not even the the likes of Michael Cohen who had worked for him for years.
Along with all the unethical people who flocked to Trump’s campaign and administration what I want to know is when did the DoJ start taking “not registering as a foreign agent” as a serious threat. I remember some weeks ago seeing the guy (now retired) who took over the department that keeps track of this on MSNBC. From what I remember of the interview it was this guy who saw something going on and decided that FARA needed to be enforced. I just can’t remember when he took charge, and what was the trigger that made him start prosecuting these lobbyists.
Working Our Way UP to you, FAT DONNY