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A former State Department official who had helped Special Adviser Robert Mueller to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 election was avoiding jail for illegally lobbying Ukraine, a judge having sentenced him to three years of probation.
Sam Patten cooperated with Mueller after admitting in August that he illegally lobbied US lawmakers on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party and helped an oligarch obtain tickets for President Donald Trump's inauguration. . He was sentenced Friday in federal court in Washington, while some cases under the investigation of Mueller are over.
Patten was sentenced by US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the same judge who sent former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to five years in prison. Manafort also admitted to illegally exerting pressure on the Ukrainian opposition bloc, its predecessor, the Party of Regions and the former president of that country, Viktor Yanukovych.
Manafort and Patten have violated the Federal Act on the Registration of Foreign Agents or FARA, a law rarely invoked that incriminates these undeclared claims and punishes them with five years of imprisonment. Unlike Manafort, who violated his plea agreement with prosecutors by lying, Patten honored his pledge to cooperate, urging the government to seek leniency on his behalf.
At Patten's hearing on Friday, Jackson called Manafort's conduct more flagrant and that's why he was sentenced to prison.
The case against Patten was developed by Mueller's team and then sent to US lawyer Jessie Liu in Washington. Prosecutors at the office on Thursday obtained an indictment against former White House lawyer Gregory Craig following lobbying for Ukraine. His case was also attributed to Jackson.
Patten also admitted to helping an unidentified Ukrainian oligarch obtain four Trump inauguration tickets by calling on a straw buyer to make the necessary $ 50,000 payment with the oligarch's money. It is forbidden for the presidential inauguration committee to accept money from foreigners.
Former head of President George W. Bush's state department, Patten headed the office of the International Republican Institute in Moscow in the early 2000s.
In one trial, prosecutors described Patten's crimes as "serious", noting that he had violated FARA, concealed a foreign donation to the inaugural committee, provided false testimony and withheld testimony from a committee. Senate Intelligence. Yet, they said, he provided "substantial assistance" justifying leniency.
Starting in 2014, Patten provided a Ukrainian "in sight" oligarch who is not cited in court documents and his opposition Bloc political party with lobbying and counseling services. He held meetings with legislators and members of the executive branch of the United States government without revealing that he was working for the bloc, according to a statement of accepted facts that he signed on his plea of guilt.
A company that Patten, co-owned with a Russian national, has received more than a million dollars for this work, said the US government. The details on the oligarch matched those of opposition bloc leader Sergei Lyovochkin, whom prosecutors had previously identified as funding Manafort's work in Ukraine.
Patten's lawyers sought to downplay their client's relationship with Manafort while extolling his early acceptance of responsibility and his willingness to help the government.
"Even so, even in media reports that falsely labeled Mr. Patten as a lobbyist, Manafort associate or Trump supporter, as well as personal attacks and death threats that he has received Mr. Patten has quietly and without fanfare or attention, has made every effort to improve and make sure that he understands what has led him to take action. a way incompatible with his own principles and his own character, "they declared in court.
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