Shot across the bow to Manafort and others? He agreed to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel office.
ETA: https://twitter.com/ShimonPro/status/1035583191225122817
âŚand other law enforcement agencies, and all grand juries. IOW, getting rid of Mueller wonât keep Patten from testifying against Spanky. Nor would pardoning Manafort silence Patten. Iâd say this is aimed at Spanky, not Manafort.
IIRC part and parcel of a Presidential pardon is that they â pardon me, pardners, would it be called the âpardoneeâ? â must cooperate with all further investigations and answer all questions truthfully under penalty of perjury.
Into your shell-like ear I whisper these words: âCaspar Weinbergerâ.
So it sounds as if this was merely a guy they came across while investigating Manafort. âmatters arisingâ indeed.
Via Van der Zwaan.
REPOSTED FROM ANOTHER THREAD WITH UPDATE:
This was probably not the Friday bombshell that most were expecting (the day is still young), but I view it as quite interesting to unlock more of the #trumprussia connections. Patten has pleaded guilty to a FARA violation for representing Ukrainian political groups and purposely avoided registering with the DOJ as a foreign agent. This looks like a flip deal, where he will be in a position to testify against Manafort, and perhaps others involved in the DOJâs crosshairs, namely, Dmitry Firtash. This case was farmed out by the Office of Special Counsel to the USAO for DC and the National Security Division of DOJ.
UPDATE:
Pattenâs plea deal is out. Not only is he pleading guilty to FARA claims, but his plea deal requires full cooperation (e.g., must appear before GJs, must allow himself to be interviewed by investigators w/o an attorney) in exchange for a decision by DOJ not to prosecute him for the following charges:
- False statements to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Burr/Warner)
- Obstruction of the USSCI
- Causing foreign money to be paid to the 2016-17 Presidential Inaugural Committee
Burr/Warner made a criminal referral to DOJ, which they used as leverage to get this dude to flip. It has been my long-held theory that part of what Manafort and Gates did was to open the floodgates of Russian money into the Trump/GOP campaigns, including the inaugural committee. This is the first sign that the DOJ has hard evidence that this happened (w/respect to the inaugural committee). To say this is a huge development is an understatement. A lot of dirty money is now going to be traced into GOP campaigns. The people who funneled it will go to jail or become cooperators.
This could be he start of a major unwinding of the illegal foreign money trail that made it into the 2016 campaign.
In addition, that Mueller/DOJ now have a FARA conviction on the books helps from the standpoint of precedent and in terms of alerting other fake lobbyists that they will go to jail for cavorting with corrupt foreign influence peddlers if they donât come clean to the Special Counsel. This is a bfd!
So who is Sam Patten? He is yet another GOP operative with curious links to Russia and pro-Russian Ukrainians. He is a close partner of Konstantin Kilimnick, that omnipresent Ukranian associated w/RU military intel who was Manafortâs right hand in his Ukrainian campaigns for Viktor Yanukovych. Kilimnick has been indicted with Manafort for witness tampering. Manafort could not have run any of his campaigns without Kilimnick because he was the only prominent person on the team who spoke fluent Ukrainian. Patten and Kilimnick have known each other for nearly 2 decades and they first got to know each other inâŚguess whereâŚMoscow!
Sam Patten and Kilimnick (identified as Foreigner A in the indictment) formed a company in 2015 called Begemot Ventures International (BVI) (identified as Company A in the indictment). Kilimnick did this just as Manafortâs fortunes had started to fall with the overthrow of Yanukovych through a widespread public revolt. Patten, unlike Manafort, had spread his political clout a bit more broadly in the Ukrainian political spectrum so he still had credibility with certain political groups that were still considered within the acceptable range of politics in Ukraine and not discredited folks like Yanukovych and his Party of Regions. Patten/Kilimnick began advising the Opposition Bloc, a successor political party to the discredited Party of Regions (read: akin to GOP rebranding itself as a Tea Party movement (as promoted by the American oligarchs, the Koch Brothers) following the discrediting of George W. Bush. Mostly the same people, but different business cards and marketing materials). In fact, Manafort is credited in part as the brain child of the Opposition Bloc - to get all the parties that opposed the Ukrainian revolution to overthrow Yanukovych (Maidan Revolution) together in one voting bloc in parliament to oppose anything done by the anti-Yanukovych/Putin majority.
The indictment also mentions that as part of the consulting relationship with the Opposition Bloc they specifically worked with âForeigner Bâ a âprominent Ukraine oligarchâ. It has been said on Twitter that this person is Serhiy Lyovochkin, Yanukovychâs former chief of staff, a current member of parliament and a leader in the Opposition Bloc. Lyovochkin, to my quick research, doesnât appear to have the level of wealth befitting an oligarch. However, he is closely associated with a much more well known oligarch who has been in the DOJâs cross hairs for a long time, Dmitry Firtash. UPDATE: The Statement of Offense was released, and it says that the Oligarch in question attended the inauguration. That rules out Firtash. Per the Guardian, Lyovochkinâs office issued a statement stating that he did attend the Trump inauguration, so he would most likely appear to be the Oligarch in question (though there were 4 tickets, with 2 used by Ukrainians).
Patten/Kilimnick took in at least $1 million from the Opposition Bloc. They lobbied members of Congress, including members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, staff, the State Department and published op-eds to promote the political interests of Foreigner B (whom I suspect is Firtash but could be someone else) and the Ukraine Opposition Bloc. Keep in mind that the interests of the Opposition Bloc tend to align with Russia as they generally have a pro-Russian policy orientation and are corrupted by Russian money, spies and influence. This appears to be a continuing part of pro-Russian aligned groups to change the political orientation of the Republican Party to a more pro-Russian tilt. Whatâs also interesting is that prosecutors have evidence of communications between Patten/Kilimnick and Foreigner B in which Patten asked whether he could register under FARA but Foreigner B said no. Thatâs why Patten is likely going to jail now.
Patten will be able to testify against Manafort on a number of the charges relating to Ukraine work in the upcoming trial. He was involved and knew all the players. He may also be able to testify against Ukrainian oligarch Foreigner B.
Some background on Dmitry Firtash
Firtash has been tight with the pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians like Yanukovych. He has been a middleman for Russiaâs state owned natural gas firm, Gazprom, through an intermediary known as RosUkrEnergo and has made himself rich from that relationship (taking his cut in various ways) and funneled some of his wealth into the campaigns of pro-Russian Ukrainian political parties. He also has large interests in the Ukrainian titanium industry. He has been suspected of working with Russian mobster Semion Mogilevich as part of his management of the RU-UKR natural gas relationship.
Yulia Tymoshenko, former UKR Prime Minister, drew the ire of Firtash when she cut him out of UKR/RU gas negotiations in 2009. He responded by supporting Yanukovych, Manafort, paying bribes to dislodge her from power and supported a campaign to smear her reputation and have her locked up. Manafort spearheaded a successful âlock her upâ campaign before it became a fantasy for Trump
Firtash was indicted in Austria for a bribery scandal related to India. US DOJ have wanted to extradite him for years, but Austrian judges have essentially refused. Firtash was indicted by a US grand jury for violations of the foreign corrupt practices act relating to bribery and money laundering for bribes offered to Indian govât officials for titanium mining licenses, which minerals were to be sold in Chicago. He still remains in Austria as far as I know. He cannot return to Ukraine as it looks like he would be arrested and tried. He canât leave Austria as other countries like the US and Spain would try him as well.
Gulp. How likely is it that Manafort pleads guilty before his next trial?
As always, an awesome analysis!
A few other thoughts on this plea deal and its implications:
- All those lying sacks of shit fuckers from Junior to Erik Prince to Michael Caputo to Roger Stone to anyone else who lied or obfuscated in front of the SSCI or HPSCI (when we take it over) are all going to be the subject of criminal referrals to the DOJ and will be prosecuted.
- Who was on or worked for the Inaugural Committee?
- Answer: Rick Gates, Tom Barrack (Chairman), Elliot Broidy, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Carl Icahn, Gentry Beach, Robert Grand, Phil Ruffin, The Mooch, Woody Johnson (NY Jets Owner), Lewis Eisenberg, Roy Bailey, Harold Hamm, Diane Hendricks, Joe Craft and a few others.
This is a veritable committee of connected people who may have enabled access to foreign money. Broidy and Barrack are the two that I expect Mueller/DOJ are focused on.
Thank you for your analysis and for setting my mind at ease. Have a great weekend, khyber900.
everything Trump touches turns brown, and anyone who reached out to him or helped him or thought it was a good move to go work for him are looking at the ruin of their careers and reputations. I know it isnât all âin the bagâ yet, but enough have already been convicted, indicted, pled guilty, or are quickly doing some calculus and re-evaluating their lives.
My hope is of course the US can withstand and survive itâŚbut he has a hell of a batting avg. If we prove to be stronger due to our institutions and some heroes, great. I suspect Russia isnât so strong. Trump is like zombie virus or some other contagion, and Russia has been hugging him close.
This is such a great synopsisâthank you. And how did I know there was a Mogilevich tie-in, before I even got to that part. Man oh man.
Hope we soon get to see a plea agreement from #45 published by TPM; one in which he is required to resign and accept exile to a small island way out in the Pacific ⌠with no access to Twitter.
I agree. We will survive this onslaught and hopefully, learn from it. Helsinki was the turning point and from there on Trump will not have a single good day. Russia will pay a high price for their hubris. No wonder Putin says he wonât run again.
Preferably one he can see Russia from.
How about on the plastic garbage pile?
That has some appeal, but it has neither tectonic or volcanic activity.
And no ginormous bears, either.