- Oct 17, 2011
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Rick Gates, one of the most significant former Trump campaign advisers who flipped on President Donald Trump in the Mueller investigation, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation by a federal judge Tuesday morning.
Gates, a longtime deputy to 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort who shared searing details about Trump's efforts in 2016 with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitted to helping Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts from their years of Ukraine lobbying work.
He agreed to plead guilty to related charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in February 2018. He also signed up to cooperate, giving Mueller's team key insights into Manafort and Trump's actions in 2016 during the height of the Russia investigations.
"When people don't have the facts, democracy fails to work," [Judge] Jackson said. The judge said she believed that Gates was motivated by greed, and rejected one letter of support that suggested politics was a factor.
"Politics don't corrupt people, people corrupt politics," she added.
But the judge said Gates' significant cooperation was important to consider as well for the role it played in the investigation of Russian interference and the Trump campaign.
"Gates' information alone warranted, indeed demanded, further investigation" for the sake of national security and the integrity of elections, Jackson observed.
Gates, a longtime deputy to 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort who shared searing details about Trump's efforts in 2016 with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitted to helping Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts from their years of Ukraine lobbying work.
He agreed to plead guilty to related charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in February 2018. He also signed up to cooperate, giving Mueller's team key insights into Manafort and Trump's actions in 2016 during the height of the Russia investigations.
"When people don't have the facts, democracy fails to work," [Judge] Jackson said. The judge said she believed that Gates was motivated by greed, and rejected one letter of support that suggested politics was a factor.
"Politics don't corrupt people, people corrupt politics," she added.
But the judge said Gates' significant cooperation was important to consider as well for the role it played in the investigation of Russian interference and the Trump campaign.
"Gates' information alone warranted, indeed demanded, further investigation" for the sake of national security and the integrity of elections, Jackson observed.