Mueller Delays Rick Gates' Sentencing A Second Time, Says Gates Is Still Cooperating
Special counsel Robert Mueller and attorneys for Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign official who was convicted of lying to federal investigators, asked for another postponement of Gates’ sentencing.
Mueller’s team and defense attorneys for Gates updated the judge presiding over his case Tuesday, citing his continuing cooperation in “several ongoing investigations.”
“To date, the status of this matter has not changed substantially since the November [status] report, as defendant Gates continues to cooperate with respect to several ongoing investigations, and accordingly the parties do not believe it is appropriate to commence the sentencing process at this time,” Mueller and Gates’ lawyer wrote in their new status report Tuesday.
The request for a delay came a day after reports about $107 million in spending by President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee on which Gates was deputy chairman. The lavish spending is already the subject of a federal criminal probe.
The repeated delay in Gates’ case suggests that Mueller’s team and other Justice Department investigators have not yet completed their investigations into the Trump campaign and inauguration, for which Gates is seen as a key witness.
Gates, a longtime business associate of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty nearly a year ago to a criminal charge of conspiracy related to his lobbying efforts with Manafort and a charge of lying to investigators.
https://hillreporter.com/mueller-delays-rick-gates-sentencing-a-second-time-says-gates-is-still-cooperating-21363