US: Paul Manafort Associate Charged Over Ukraine Lobbying

Sam Patten worked for the US State Department during George W Bush’s presidency. Photo Credit: Getty

A Republican consultant linked to President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort admitted on Friday he illegally chanelled money from a Ukraine tycoon to Trump’s inauguration.

Sam Patten, who worked with Manafort to advise and lobby for Ukraine’s pro-Russia Opposition Bloc, was the newest person to be charged out of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s sprawling Russia collusion investigation.

The Associated Press reports that the charges were filed by the US attorney's office in Washington and not by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which has already resulted in several guilty pleas from associates of President Donald Trump — and eight criminal convictions for Mr Manafort himself.

In addition to Mr Patten's work alongside Mr Manafort in Ukrainian campaigns, he also ran operations in several other countries including Russia, Georgia, Iraq, and Kazakhstan, according to Bloomberg. He formerly worked for the State Department during George W Bush's presidency, and previously worked on micro-targeting operations with the controversial firm Cambridge Analytica.

In a deal with prosecutors Patten agreed to plead guilty to one charge of failing to register as a foreign agent, a relatively light charge that was conditioned on his cooperation with Mueller and other investigations.

A court filing said he earned more than $1 million between 2015 and 2017 representing the interests of the Opposition Bloc, which Manafort also previously consulted for.

The work was performed by Patten’s joint company with a Russian national who is unnamed in the court filing but appears to be Konstantin Kilimnik, a former linguist of Moscow’s powerful GRU spy agency. US officials say Kilimnik continues to maintain close ties to Russian intelligence.

The charges said Patten worked with his Russian partner to set up meetings between an unnamed “prominent Ukraine oligarch” and member of the US Congress and their staff “to influence United States policy.”

Patten also, in January 2017, arranged for the Ukrainian oligarch to attend Trump’s inauguration.

To obtain four tickets, the Ukrainian funnelled $50,000 through Patten and another American.

“Patten was aware at the time that the Presidential Inauguration Committee could not accept money from foreign nationals,” the charges said.

The Patten case came 10 days after Manafort, a longtime Republican consultant who was chairman of Trump’s election campaign in 2016, was convicted of tax and bank fraud as a part of Mueller’s investigation.





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