A federal judge sentenced lobbyist W. Samuel Patten to 36 months of probation for funneling $50,000 from foreign nationals to President Trump's inaugural committee.
On Friday, Patten spoke briefly before U.S District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C. — the judge who oversaw one of Manafort's cases — to express his remorse.Prosecutors allege he bought four tickets on behalf of two unnamed foreign nationals, one from Russia, the other from Ukraine, and tried to conceal the deal. Patten paid the straw purchaser $50,000 and a day later the purchaser paid the Presidential Inauguration Committee the same amount for the four tickets.
Court documents do not suggest the Trump Inauguration Committee was aware of the straw purchase. Presidential inaugural committees are prohibited from accepting donations from foreign nationals, according toJackson said on Friday that Patten’s conduct was unlike recently prosecuted FARA cases, such as the one dealing with Manafort. Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years on tax and bank fraud charges by a federal judge in Virginia and an additional 43 months by Jackson on conspiracy charges.
“This is not the picture of someone who is motivated by greed, who sells his services to the highest bidder,” she said. Patten’s friends and family wrote letters of support to the judge detailing his childhood and his recent focus on his physical and mental health. Jackson said she was particularly affected by these letters, saying he “deserved to be commended” for his recent turnaround.Charlie Gile reported from Washington, and Dartunorro Clark from New York.
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