W. Samuel Patten sentenced to probation after steering Ukrainian money to Trump inaugural

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post



An American political consultant whose guilty plea marked the first confirmation that illegal foreign money was used to help fund Donald Trump’s inaugural committee was sentenced to probation Friday by a federal judge who cited his cooperation with U.S. prosecutors.

W. Samuel Patten, 47, in August admitted steering $50,000 from a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician to Trump’s committee in an investigation spun off from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Patten acknowledged he was helped by a Russian national who is a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the case was referred to prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the Justice Department’s national security division.

In sparing Patten from prison, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accepted prosecutors’ request for leniency and noted no federal sentencing guideline directly applies to his offense of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. Patten’s defense sought probation citing the substantial assistance he provided in several ongoing, undisclosed investigations. He was sentenced to three years of probation. 500 hours of community service and fined $5,000.

Patten “earned the trust of the government and became a reliable and valuable resource” for Mueller’s Russia investigation and prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office, Patten’s attorney Stuart A. Sears said in sentencing papers.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/w-samuel-patten-sentenced-to-probation-after-steering-ukrainian-money-to-trump-inaugural/2019/04/12/3dbf2692-5cc1-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html

[DirtEdonE]

1. Wow. Another slap on the wrist for all that cooperation that led nowhere

"U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accepted prosecutors’ request for leniency and noted no federal sentencing guideline directly applies to his offense of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, which is punishable by up to five years in prison."

Berman Jackson again. What a tough judge. lol

Real law and order type.

What a farce.

[thesquanderer]

9. "law and order judge" is only a euphemism for "tough on minorities" (n/t)

[DirtEdonE]

16. Or conversely a sarcastic comment on judges who always let the white guys off nt

[RANDYWILDMAN]

2. Poor guy, he feels so bad about being caught....

We should give him a pony or something.


Why does the person who who steals something anything, $200 bucks from a store get's years in Prison, but people who push thousands or millions across paperwork get a "don't do that again" slap on the wrist ?

[Botany]

3. " ... who cited his cooperation with U.S. prosecutors."

I hope this leads to something but I am losing hope.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. May have been related to nailing Manafort. nt

[Botany]

6. Ivanka was going full on grift during the inauguration ..... but really what about Hillary's emails?

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ivanka-trump-inaugural-investigation-769774/

According to reporting by WNYC and ProPublica, President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee paid large sums of money to the Trump organization to host events at the Trump-owned property, and the president’s daughter discussed charging $175,000 per day for the space, despite organizers’ concerns that it would look like the Trumps were lining their pockets.

“These events are in PE’s [the president-elect’s] honor at his hotel and one of them is for family and close friends. Please take into consideration that when this is audited it will become public knowledge. I understand that compared to the original pricing this is great but we should look at the whole context. In my opinion the max rental fee should be $85,000 per day,” Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, an event planner who helped with the inauguration, wrote to caution Ivanka and others involved with the planning.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Well in that particular case

you do see someone doing some major CYA and we now see why!

[Cracklin Charlie]

5. "A reliable and trusted resource"

Sounds promising.

There’s a lot of dirty deeds around that inauguration.

[NCjack]

7. Lesson (re)learned. In America, crime pays bigly. nt

[Leghorn21]

8. I never heard of "Rick Gates" before he and Manafort were busted, and I had lusted after Manafort

and was so SO happy, and I said but who’s this sidekick Rick dude, who cares about him?

Well, shows what I know. Gates was in deep with Manafort, sure, but he was subsequently virtually adopted by Inauguration chairman Tom Barrack, and holy SHIT, what a gift this Gates guy has delivered to the Feds. And he ain’t done yet, neither.

So I’m gonna hope like hell this Patten guy has delivered some goodies to our intrepid investigators (“one thing leads to another”) and has earned his probation here.

Key takeaways from the article - and they’re not little nothing berders:

...(Patten’s) guilty plea marked the first confirmation that illegal foreign money was used to help fund Donald Trump’s inaugural committee

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accepted prosecutors’ request for leniency...

Patten’s defense sought probation citing the substantial assistance he provided in several ongoing, undisclosed investigations....

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Another takeaway:

".....in an investigation spun off from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election."

Mueller wisely gave parts of the massive investigations to other prosecutors, state as well as Federal, both to maximize time used to cover the wide scope of the issues, and to prevent someone like Barr shutting the whole thing down.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Rich gray hair male privilege. . . . nt

[PeeJ52]

12. All these people are going to be let off with slaps on the wrists for cooperating...

to prove tRump and his family is guilty and they will be let go because a pResident can't commit a crime according to Barr. This is disgusting.

[moonseller66]

13. Too bad there's no "vax" for corruption, hate and deceit

It appears the Russian Money may have been spread a lot farther than even we can imagine and probably for many years. We've been limiting our thoughts to politicians. Maybe we need to look wider.

When did America's hidden President (V. Putin) first come into power?

He is a brilliant schemer, very intelligent a former KGB genius and his one main thought was the overthrow of America with probably seeking revenge over the Soviet Union's "loss" to America. And with all the resources of the former Soviet Union and Russian "Capitalists" just may have concocted in the 90s the ultimate scheme for the overthrow of America and Democracy in the world. And saw it come to fruition.

Was there really the overall amount of dissension, conflict and hatred in the world as open and prevalent as before he came to power? Yes there was conflict etc. but not as widespread.

Gotta hand it to him. If I wanted to rule the world, I'd probably do as he did...start fomenting hate all over the world, buy politicians, leaders and even grass roots locals and especially the church. Start spreading BS through media especially in America by maybe even financing Fox to start. Wormtongue may have been real.

Then use the "new medium" of the internet with a complicit founder of Facebook and maybe Twitter along with Right Wing Newspapers, Radio and Tv to spread that hate along with more Russian dollars gleaned from greedy American Corporations who were probably promised as many golden "calves" as they want.

We've been looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The problem may have been Putin all along...not to mention good old American Greed.

Since it seems as though we may have nothing left to lose, just maybe it's time for more radical action.

[Mr. Evil]

15. "Just maybe it's time for more radical action."

That's God Damned right!

[Mr. Evil]

14. This is all looking more and more like scripted theater.

The MSM gets to report on these activities with their panels of 'experts' over and over, night after night. We follow, night after night. Yet, nothing ever really comes of it. Dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of crimes breeds a plethora of speculation and the daily proclamation that so and so MAY have committed a crime. Either some of these cretins did commit a crime or they did not commit a crime. I never knew that the US criminal code had such a huge gray area when it comes to crimes committed by government officials and their cronies.

A few arrogant loudmouths get arrested and plead out to nothing (Manafort is so far the exception but, he'll probably get pardoned) and the big fish are always allowed to continue on. Trump has broken so many laws in the past 3 decades and ruined so many lives (mainly the untold number of contractors he's intentionally stiffed) he should be imprisoned automatically.

With the William Barr fiasco I've simply begun to lose all hope of a just society. Laws mean nothing to these people anymore. Nothing. It's all theater. And with the Democrats issuing a trove of empty threats nothing will change. Mnuchin needs to be jailed. Barr needs to be impeached. Trump needs to be impeached, indicted, jailed, ruined and made to live out the rest of his lying, corrupt life in absolute disgrace.

Sorry for the rant. I'm just so disappointed.

[KPN]

17. We are screwed! "remorse was genuine" my ass! Three things:

(1) the Mueller investigation is looking more and more like a sham

(2) American exceptionalism again on full display in our two-tier justice system.

(3) We are screwed. I'm beginning to think the people who think we ought to just blow the whole frigging system up are right.

[rockfordfile]

20. Well it was never a true investigation. Mueller was never to be trusted. Anyone remember the lies

Anyone remember the lies of the Irag War.

[sandensea]

18. Cheeto and his brood should share that jail cell with him

They solicited and benefited all that and more, which makes them ultimately responsible.