Former Trump aide Gates pleads guilty in Russia probe and agrees to co-operate
A former senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s election campaign pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of federal conspiracy and making false statements, as he prepared to become a co-operating witness in the investigation into Russia’s polls interference.
The plea by Rick Gates showed that he will help special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in “any and all matters”.
Prosecutors continue to investigate the 2016 campaign, Russian meddling and Gates’ longtime business associate Paul Manafort, who was also Trump campaign chairman.
Gates will give Mr Mueller a witness who can provide information on Mr Manafort’s finances and political consulting work in Ukraine, and someone who had access at the highest levels of Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Gates, 45, made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington.
He admitted to charges accusing him of conspiring against the US government through fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying, as well as lying to federal authorities in a recent interview.
Under the terms of the plea, Gates is likely to face between 57 and 71 months behind bars and will possibly be fined between $20,000 (Dh73,400) and $200,000.
The plea came a day after a federal grand jury returned a 32-count indictment against Gates and Mr Manafort, accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. Gates is the fifth defendant to plead guilty in Mueller’s investigation.
The indictment in Virginia was the second round of charges against Gates and Mr Manafort, who were initially charged in October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working for a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.
Mr Manafort continues to maintain his innocence.
“I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise,” he said on Friday.
“This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me.”
Over the past few months, Gates gradually began to show the strain the case was placing on him and his family.
He frequently pleaded with US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson for leniency in his house arrest to let him attend sporting events with his four children.
His plea comes after a stunning indictment last week that laid out a broad operation of election meddling by Russia, which began in 2014, and used fake social media accounts and politicking to promote Trump’s campaign and disparage Hillary Clinton.
The charges to which Gates is pleading guilty do not involve any conduct connected to the Trump campaign.
Gates served on the campaign at the same time that Mr Manafort, Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner met with a team of Russians in Trump Tower in June 2016.
He was also involved in the campaign when then senator Jeff Sessions held two undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.
For a few months in 2016, Gates was indispensable to Mr Trump, leading the effort to help him win the Republican nomination and flying from state to state to secure Republican delegates.
But Mr Manafort’s power and influence waned once Trump fired him in August 2016 after Associated Press disclosed how Gates and he covertly directed a Washington lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests.
Gates survived his mentor’s dismissal, serving as the campaign’s liaison to the Republican National Committee and later working on Trump’s inaugural committee.
He also worked with political groups supporting Mr Trump’s agenda, America First Policies and America First Action.
When he was indicted in October, Gates was working for Tom Barrack, a close friend of Mr Trump.
Friday’s court papers accuse Gates of lying to federal agents about a March 19, 2013, meeting involving Mr Manafort, a lobbyist and a member of Congress.
The charges do not name the lobbyist or the politician, but filings with the Justice Department show Mr Manafort and Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs met Californian Republican Dana Rohrabacher that day as part of a lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests.
Also on Friday, Mr Mueller’s team unsealed a new indictment against Mr Manafort that included an allegation that he, with Gates’ assistance, paid former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian interests.
The former politicians, informally known as the “Hapsburg group”, appeared to be “independent” analysts when in fact they were lobbyists who were paid more than €2 million (Dh9m).
Gates will give Mr Mueller a witness willing to provide information on Mr Manafort