Rick Gates, former top campaign aide to Trump, pleads guilty in Russia investigation
WASHINGTON – Richard W. Gates III, who helped lead President Donald Trump’s campaign after making millions of dollars advising Ukraine’s pro-kremlin government, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy against the United States and lying to the FBI, the latest former Trump aide to admit wrongdoing in the sprawling Russia investigation.
He is expected to face about 18 months in prison under terms of a plea deal and has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The plea, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is unusual because it indicates that Gates lied to Mueller’s team and the FBI as recently as Feb. 1, when he already was negotiating with prosecutors about the raft of criminal charges he was facing.
Gates, 45, is the fifth former Trump aide to plead guilty in the Mueller probe, and the first to plead guilty to more than one criminal charge.
The development comes a day after Mueller filed a new indictment with 32 charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and other allegations against Gates and his former business partner, Paul Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign manager for three months in 2016, including at the tumultuous Republican National Convention.
Gates, who served as Manafort’s deputy, is expected to testify against Manafort if his case goes to trial. It’s not clear what else he can provide prosecutors, but Gates continued to serve as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign after Manafort stepped down in August 2016, helped organize Trump’s inauguration, Donald Trump, left, and Rick Gates on stage in Quicken Arena for the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio.
and had access to the White House as an outside adviser in the early weeks of the administration.
None of the charges against Gates and Manafort cite Russian meddling in the presidential election, which was the impetus for Mueller’s investigation, but the alleged tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy extended through 2017 and thus overlapped with the pair’s work in the top ranks of the Trump campaign, according to court documents.
In a statement Friday, Manafort continued to assert his innocence.
“Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence,” he wrote. “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. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.”
Gates’ guilty plea marks an emphatic fall for the married father of four. The son of a career Army officer, Gates had maintained an appearance of wealthy prestige while living in an upscale neighborhood of Richmond, Va.
The Los Angeles Times/ Tribune Washington Bureau reported Sunday that Gates was about to plead guilty in a deal negotiated by his lawyer, Thomas C. Green, and two prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann and Greg D. Andres, who serve on Mueller’s team.
A person familiar with the negotiated plea said Gates can expect “a substantial reduction in his sentence” if he fully cooperates with the special counsel. If Gates were convicted of all the earlier charges, he could have faced years in prison.
Before Gates appeared with Green to formally admit his guilt, he had become briefly distraught at taking that final step, according to people familiar with the case. However, as of Wednesday, Gates assured Green that he would stand behind the negotiated deal.
Gates and Manafort initially were charged with a dozen counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in October, and they pleaded not guilty to those charges.
In the latest indictment, prosecutors painted a detailed picture of how Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts to stash millions of dollars and illegally funneled the money into the United States to purchase real estate and finance luxury lifestyles.