Weber, V

===

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/31/17805310/sam-patten-mueller-plea-manafort

Mueller investigation has resulted in yet another plea deal. Sam Patten, a Republican lobbyist, pleaded guilty Friday to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in his unregistered work for a Ukrainian politician and a Ukrainian oligarch — and agreed to cooperate with the government.

Patten was charged by the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia. But Mueller’s team referred the investigation there and Patten’s plea agreement specifically says he must cooperate with the special counsel’s office. Andrew Weissmann, an attorney on Mueller’s team, attended Patten’s hearing Friday.

There are several similarities between Patten’s work and the unregistered Ukrainian lobbying allegations against Paul Manafort. Like Manafort, Patten worked for Ukraine’s pro-Russian political faction. Like Manafort, his payments went through offshore accounts in Cyprus.

Also like Manafort, Patten worked closely with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national who Mueller claims is tied to Russian intelligence services. (Mueller indicted Kilimnik alongside Manafort this year for attempted witness tampering, but he is overseas and has not been arrested.)

Weissmann, who attended the Patten hearing, is Mueller’s lead attorney handling the prosecution of Manafort. Manafort was convicted of eight counts of financial crimes in Virginia last week, but he is scheduled to face another trial on conspiracy, unregistered lobbying, and witness tampering charges in Washington, DC, next month.

What Sam Patten pleaded guilty to doing

According to the criminal information document filed by the DC US attorney’s office, Patten and Kilimnik (who is not named but referred to as “Foreigner A”) founded a lobbying and consulting company together. They did campaign work in Ukraine and lobbying work in the US, and were paid over $1 million between 2015 and 2017.

Specifically, the document claims that Patten contacted members of Congress and their staffers, State Department officials, and members of the press on behalf of his Ukrainian clients — all without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as required by law.

Patten also admits to helping his Ukrainian oligarch client get around the prohibition on foreign donations to Donald Trump’s inauguration committee.The oligarch sent $50,000 to Patten’s company, and then he gave that money to a US citizen, who bought the four tickets. The tickets were given to the oligarch, Kilimnik, another Ukrainian, and Patten himself.

Finally, Patten also admits to misleading the Senate Intelligence Committee and withholding documents from them during testimony this January.

Who is Sam Patten?

Patten worked for George W. Bush’s State Department, and according to his website, he’s done work in Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, and Russia. He also worked as the Eurasian program director at Freedom House, a group that promotes democracy and human rights, between 2009 and 2011.

Patten’s ties to Kilimnik were known publicly and described in profiles by the Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay and the Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand earlier this year. Indeed, Patten even publicly defended Kilimnik in the press when he came under Mueller’s scrutiny this year.

Intriguingly, Patten is also tied to the controversial political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Patten told the Daily Beast earlier this year that he worked with the company in its 2014 US elections work and on “several overseas campaigns.”

Cambridge later did work for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and came under investigative scrutiny for, among other things, its use of Facebook data. Mueller’s team reportedly looked into Cambridge Analytica in their Russia probe, but has not charged any matter related to the firm.

This is the third known referral by Robert Mueller to other Justice Department offices — but now, Patten is cooperating with Mueller

Either because of lack of resources or a desire to avoid expanding his probe too much beyond the central players in the Russia investigation, Mueller is now known to have referred several potentially criminal matters he has discovered to other offices in the Justice Department to investigate.

The special counsel reportedly referred another inquiry of prominent Washington figures’ Ukrainian lobbying to the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), this one concerning Tony Podesta, Vin Weber, and Greg Craig. (This trio worked with Manafort and his associate Rick Gates on some of their Ukraine projects.)

Mueller also referred the investigation of Michael Cohen for tax and campaign finance violations to SDNY (though he appears to have continued investigating Cohen on matters related to Russia). Cohen pleaded guilty on eight counts in the SDNY case last week.

The charge here — not registering as a foreign agent under FARA — is believed to be widespread in Washington, but it is rarely prosecuted. Mueller’s probe, however, seems to have turned up a plethora of evidence of such violations, even for figures he hasn’t closely focused on.

The Patten investigation is the third known probe Mueller has referred. Yet this does not seem to have been a complete handoff, since his plea agreement specifically mentions he must cooperate with the special counsel’s office. So Patten has become Mueller’s newest cooperator.

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The criminal information document released by special counsel Robert Mueller ahead of Trump campaign aide Rick Gates’ guilty plea on Friday contains prominent references to “a member of Congress” who met in 2013 with future Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and another lobbyist.

HuffPost has identified that member as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a loudly pro-Russia lawmaker who has drawn the attention of Mueller and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller has not yet interviewed Rohrabacher, the congressman’s spokesman told HuffPost on Friday in a message that also confirmed the 2013 meeting with Manafort. But Mueller’s team wanted to interview Rohrabacher as of late last year, according to news reports, and the criminal information released in advance of Gates’ plea suggests they were asking about Rohrabacher recently. The congressman has already been interviewed by the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Gates has told a court that he lied to federal investigators on Feb. 1, 2018, about his knowledge of the meeting between Rohrabacher, Manafort and lobbyist Vin Weber when he falsely claimed he did not know Ukraine was discussed. Ukraine is one of the top foreign policy concerns of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Manafort spent years working for Ukrainian politicians close to Moscow. And Rohrabacher was one of only a few U.S. lawmakers to oppose American assistance to a new government in Ukraine established in 2014 after protests against Putin’s allies in that country.

Rohrabacher has become notorious for being what The New York Times calls “an apologist” for Putin. “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said during a 2016 meeting of the GOP’s top brass, according to a secret recording shared with The Washington Post. (McCarthy later said he was joking.) Russian intelligence officials gave Rohrabacher a code namebecause they viewed him as a valuable source, The New York Times revealed last year.

Rohrabacher maintains that he is simply motivated by a sincere desire for better relations between Washington and Moscow. In a 2014 Twitter exchange, the congressman wrote, “Have known Manafort 35 years. As in all matters, I make up mind based on truth & right, not donations or even friendship.”

Officials speaking with The New York Times last year said they did not believe Rohrabacher was actively working with the Russians.

As both chair of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee covering Europe and a former anti-Soviet hawk, the congressman argues that the two countries with the world’s largest nuclear arsenals need to get along and that Americans should have more sympathy for Russia’s priorities and its fears of Western encirclement.

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NOCKING ON DOORS: AIRBNB’S LOBBYING EFFORTS

What about Airbnb’s lobbying efforts–where do those end up concentrated? Like Uber, Airbnb has largely focused on building a presence and relationships with lawmakers–not any big moves.Early in 2016, Airbnb hired former Republican Congressman Vin Weber, of Minnesota, to up its federal advocacy presence. Weber explained to The Hill: “The good news is, they are smart enough to get involved in this town before they really need anything. They’re trying to introduce themselves before there’s any problem to be dealt with on the federal level.” But Airbnb has been cagey, in its lobbying reports, about revealing its interests in Washington: it often fills in the space for “Specific lobbying issues” with vague phrases like “programs and policies affecting the sharing economy” or “regulatory issues.”

Some of Airbnb’s energy has been concentrated on fighting the hotel industry. For example, the American Hotel and Lodging Association has been lobbying for more intense regulations for short term rentals like Airbnb; Airbnb has pushed back, publicly claiming the organization is anti-union and against minimum wage increases.

CONCLUSION

Uber and Airbnb have become such ubiquitous parts of our lives, despite the fact that they only sprung up a few years ago. But their moves in Washington, while recent, have been growing and are important to track. Because Uber, Airbnb, and other mainstays of the sharing economy like Lyft, Rover, and TaskRabbit, serve to disrupt their markets and provide existing services in new ways, they are particularly concerned about the effects certain federal regulations could have on their companies.

These companies have also started to increasingly make their political engagement known, especially in the wake of Trump’s presidential win. Right after Trump’s controversial executive order regarding travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, both Uber and Lyft fell into the political conversation. Uber came under fire after continuing to offer rides to JFK Airport despite a traffic strike, and #DeleteUber began trending as a result. In response, Lyft pledged to donate $1 million to the ACLU over the next four years. While federal lobbying matters, Uber, Lyft, and other sharing economy companies have shown that they’re willing to up their political engagement in other ways too.

Clearly there are many reasons that both companies have begun spending more heavily on federal lobbying. As Uber and Airbnb become more visible on the lobbying circuit, it’s worth watching how they spend their influence investments.

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John Vincent (Vin) Weber became an adviser to Republican 2008 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in January 2007.^[1] A former Republican U.S. Representative from Minnesota (1980-1992), Weber has been a lobbyist and the managing partner of Clark & Weinstock's Washington D.C. office since 1994. He is chairman of the board at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Pro-war in Iraq

Weber is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signatories to the January 26, 1998, PNAC letter^[2] sent to President Clinton urging him "to seize that opportunity" in his upcoming State of the Union "to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power." He also signed the September 20, 2001, PNAC letter^[3] endorsing President George W. Bush's "admirable commitment to 'lead the world to victory' in the war against terrorism."

In March 2002, Weber was among a "powerful group of neo-conservatives [who launched] a new public relations campaign in support of President George W. Bush's war on terrorism," Jim Lobe wrote in AlterNet.^[4] Calling themselves Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT), they "declared their intention to 'take to task those groups and individuals who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the war we are facing.'"

"The newly-formed organization is headed by a formidable array of right-wing luminaries," Lobe wrote. "At the top of the list is former Secretary of Education and drug czar William Bennett, AVOT's chairman. The group's Senior Advisors include former CIA director R. James Woolsey; former Reagan Pentagon official Frank Gaffney; William P. Barr, attorney general under George Bush, Sr; and mega-political donor Lawrence Kadish. AVOT is a project of Empower America -- also co-chaired by Bennett -- whose principal members include conservative political operatives Jeane Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp, Vin Weber and William Cohen."

Profiles

Weber is co-founder and co-director ofEmpower America and co-director of the Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group. According to his C&W biographical note, he is also a fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, "where he is a co-director with former Congressman Tim Penny of the Policy Forum (formerly the Mondale Forum)."^[5]

Weber is a member of the Board of Directors of Citizens Against Government Waste, board member of ITT Educational Services, Department 56 and the German Marshall Fund.

Other affiliations

• Member,Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion
• Client: DP World
• Emeriti Trustee, National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy ^[6]
• Leadership Group, U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project ^[7]
• Director, Council on Foreign Relations ^[8]

Resources and articles

Related SourceWatch articles

• Project for the New American Century, PNAC, original signer
• Task Force In Support of Arab Democracy, member
• U.S. presidential election, 2008

References

2. ↑ Chris Cillizza, "Romney, McCain Tout New Backers," The Fix Blog/Washington Post, January 15, 2007.
3. ↑ Letter to President William Jefferson Clinton from PNAC, January 26, 1998.
4. ↑ Letter to President George W. Bush from PNAC, September 20, 2001.
5. ↑ Jim Lobe, "The War on Dissent Widens," AlterNet, March 12, 2002.
6. ↑ Bio: Vin Weber, Clark and Weinstock.
7. ↑ Directors, National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, accessed December 13, 2007.
8. ↑ Leadership Group, U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project, accessed January 2, 2009.
9. ↑ Board, Council on Foreign Relations, accessed March 20, 2011.

Profiles

• Profile: Vin Weber, RightWeb.
• Kevin Featherly, "Grilling Weber. *In Vin Veritas*," Minnesota Law & Politics (Featherly.com), June/July 2004.
• Bio: Vin Weber, Clark and Weinstock; accessed December 2004.

External articles

Categories: Politics (U.S.) | Elections (U.S.)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Vincent Weber (born July 24, 1952 in Slayton, Minnesota) is a former Republican Congressman from Minnesota. Weber attended the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities from 1970 to 1974. He had been the co-publisher of Murray County newspaper and the president of Weber Publishing Company. He was press secretary to Representative Tom Hagedorn from 1974 to 1975, a senior aide to Senator Rudy Boschwitz from 1977 to 1980. Weber had also been a delegate to the Minnesota State Republican conventions in 1972 and 1978. In 1980, at the age of 28 he was elected to the Sixth Congressional District, defeating Archie Baumann by 53 to 47 percent. Baumann had been an aide to former congressman Richard Nolan. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1992, and is now a resident of Walker, Minnesota.

Weber retired from congress in 1992, two years before the "Republican revolution", after being caught up in the House banking scandal which revealed the bank had repeatedly paid overdrafts for 125 checks on his account.^[1] However, as secretary of the House Republican caucus and key adviser to incoming Speaker Newt Gingrich, he was considered one of the architects of the Republican's success in 1994. He briefly was a commentator on National Public Radio the following year about developments in Congress after the Republicans took control of the House, providing commentary on the "revolution" he had helped create. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting reported that Weber frequently offered his opinions on NPR about health care issues, but never revealed that he was a paid lobbyist for several health insurance giants.^[2]

He is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the PNAC Letter sent to US President Bill Clinton dated January 26, 1998, advocating "the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power" along with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and 29 other notable Republicans.^[3]

Currently, Weber is managing partner of the Washington, D.C. branch of lobbying firm Clark & Weinstock. In 2006, Weber's firm received $360,297 from home mortgage giant Freddie Mac to lobby on their behalf.[3]

Weber also serves as chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit organization designed to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. He is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, where is co-director of the Policy Forum. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Law and Politics at the University of Minnesota Law School.^[4] Weber is a board member of several private sector and nonprofit organizations, including ITT Educational Services, Department 56, and the Aspen Institute. He also serves on the Board of The Council on Foreign Relations and co-chaired the Independent Task Force on U.S. Policy toward Reform in the Arab World with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In addition, Weber is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board.

Weber served as the Bush-Cheney '04 Plains States Regional Chairman. On January 16, 2007, Weber became Policy Chairman for the Romney for President Exploratory Committee.^[5] He had been advising potential 2012 presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty but as of September 6, 2011 he is advising potential 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a member of his Economic Policy Team.^[6]

He currently serves as president of the Association for Mature American Citizens.

[edit] References

1. ^ New York Times 4/16/2004
2. ^ NPR Health Reform "Debate" Needs Second Opinion, FAIR
3. ^ http://www.theindyvoice.com/pnac/ PNAC Letter
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ [2]
6. ^ http://mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view/2011/09/mitt-announces-his-economic-policy-team

[edit] External links

• Vin Weber Papers, including extensive records of his congressional service, are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.
• Vin Weber at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress