General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsManafort associate Samuel Patten has signed a plea agreement on FARA violation,
Last edited Fri Aug 31, 2018, 11:25 AM - Edit history (3)
according to Pete Williams. Hearing this morning at 11.
Also, the Bloomberg report says he was connected with Cambridge Analytica in 2014.
The second link below includes a copy of a court filing.
The third link is to a Natasha Betrand report on Patten from April, with some interesting background.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/manafort-associate-sam-patten-is-charged-with-lobbying-violation
Patten is scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson at 11 a.m. as part of a plea agreement, according to the court docket.
Patten worked for multiple political parties and office-holders in Ukraine, according to his website. He previously worked on the microtargetting operations of Cambridge Analytica during the 2014 election cycle, the Daily Beast reported in April.
His work for Cambridge Analytica was later adopted by "at least one major U.S. presidential candidate," the Daily Beast said. Patten told the publication that his work for Cambridge Analytica was separate from the work of his consulting firm.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/sam-patten-fara-charge
As part of his work for the Opposition Bloc, Patten was in contact with members of Congress, the executive branch, and members of the American media, according to the charging document. He also allegedly arranged for the unnamed Russian national and unnamed Ukrainian oligarch to meet with members of Congress and their staff, per the filing. Specifically, he set up meetings in January 2015 between the Ukrainian oligarch and members of the congressional foreign relations committees, staffers at the State Department and American journalists, according to prosecutors.
Patten helped the Ukrainian oligarch write an op-ed in January 2017 and was successful in placing the piece in an American media outlet in February 2017, according to the charging document.
According to the Friday filing, the Ukrainian oligarch directed Patten not to register as a foreign agent while he was working for the Opposition Blog.
Patten
Read the filing below:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/a-dc-operatives-long-relationship-with-a-suspected-russian-spy/557438/
Patten describes himself as an international political consultant on his website, but he worked at the Oregon office of Cambridge Analyticas parent company, SCL Group, helping to fine-tune the firms voter targeting operations in the runup to the 2014 midterm elections, according to investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed, now a columnist for Middle East Eye. Patten alluded to this work on his website, writing that he worked with one of Londons most innovative strategic communications companies on a beta run of a cutting-edge electoral approach that included taking micro-targeting to the next level during the 2014 congressional cycle. Those technologies, he wrote, were adopted by at least one major U.S. presidential candidate.
Both Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump employed Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 election. Mueller is now scrutinizing the Trump campaigns ties to Cambridge Analytica, whose board included Trumps campaign CEO and former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Bannon interviewed Patten in July 2016 for his SiriusXM radio show, Breitbart News Daily, about a group Patten represents called the Committee to Destroy ISIS. There is no evidence that Patten did any work with Cambridge Analytica or the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. But his relationship with the data firm did not end with the 2014 midterm elections. According to The Guardians Carole Cadwalladr, Patten played a central role in the firms work in Nigeria in early 2015work that included hiring Israeli computer hackers to search for kompromat, or compromising information, on the candidate challenging the incumbent president at the time, Goodluck Jonathan. Patten didnt respond to a request for comment about the Nigeria campaign.
honest.abe
(8,678 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,009 posts)An associate of a Russian co-defendant of ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort was charged Friday with failing to register with the federal goverment as an agent of foreign interest.
The associate, 47-year-old W. Samuel Patten of Washington, D.C., is due to appear in court Friday morning in federal court in Washington.
He was charged in a criminal information filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, and the Justice Department's National Security Division. The charges relate to lobbying and consulting work that Patten has done since 2014 with an unidentified Russian national for a Ukraine political party known as Opposition Bloc, among other activities.
He also allegedly advised an unnamed Russian oligarch, and received payments of more than $1 million to a company he formed from that oligarch to a bank account in Cyprus, according to the criminal information. The informations says that Patten set up meetings for the oligarch with members of Congress and their staffs on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2015.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/31/feds-charge-man-who-worked-with-russian-co-defendant-of-paul-manafort.html
pnwmom
(108,978 posts)So one question would be whether he will be in some kind of cooperation agreement with the government.
BumRushDaShow
(129,009 posts)(like Cohen's case), Mueller handed it off to a local U.S. Attorney's office (D.C.) to handle. So a cooperation agreement might need to proceed in the same fashion as Cohen might be trying to do - sortof "remote" from the main Mueller team.
Leghorn21
(13,524 posts)guilty to one count of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Patten has agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors, Bloomberg reports.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/manafort-associate-sam-patten-is-charged-with-fara-violation?srnd=premium
Link to tweet
NOW were talkin!!
pnwmom
(108,978 posts)triron
(22,003 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,009 posts)Am digging around the 'net to see...
Edit to add - some wild info out there for him -
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-inside-the-trump-lobby-that-wants-to-break-up-iraq-3ecf122f0ead
http://1001iraqithoughts.com/2016/10/27/unravelling-the-coordinated-campaign-to-break-up-iraq/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/can-washington-campaign-tactics-translate-in-iraq-sam-patten-and-his-candidate-hope-so/2014/04/28/9ca7fee2-cbe7-11e3-95f7-7ecdde72d2ea_story.html?utm_term=.179f81cfb3e9
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Watch for this story to sprout legs as they say.