Prosecutors make secret filing in case linked to Mueller

Source: The Hill

Government prosecutors on Monday filed an update in a criminal case stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation -- but the filing was made under seal, meaning the details remain shielded from the public.

The case involves Sam Patten, a GOP consultant and one-time associate of Paul Manafort who pleaded guilty to failing to register as a foreign agent while performing lobbying work on behalf of a political party in Ukraine last August.

The U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C. and Patten's defense attorneys were due to file a status report in his case on Monday -- filings that sometimes contain details about the extent of a defendant's cooperation with the government.

However, federal prosecutors asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing Patten's case, to file the status report under seal. Jackson granted the request.


Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/429499-prosecutors-make-secret-filing-in-case-linked-to-mueller#.XGIkkbfSbQE.twitter

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This is the second of Sam Patten's status reports filed under seal. Patten pled guilty to a FARA violation. It's unclear which investigations he's now cooperating on, but in In a court filing, he was accused of buying $50K of inauguration tickets for Russians.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manhattan-feds-subpoena-trump-inaugural-committee

February 4, 2019

Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York sent a wide-ranging subpoena to Trump's presidential inaugural committee on Monday. . . .

SNIP

At least one person has said he funneled foreign cash into the inaugural committee in exchange for tickets. D.C. lobbyist W. Sam Patten admitted to the scheme during an August guilty plea to failing to register as a foreign agent, saying he used a straw donor to funnel $50,000 into the committee in exchange for tickets for a Ukrainian oligarch.