Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleads guilty to 2 charges

[Drum]

Source: Washington Post

Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleads guilty to 2 charges
By Devlin Barrett, Spencer S. Hsu and Tom Hamburger February 23 at 3:05 PM


Rick Gates, a former top official in President Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to conspiracy and lying to the FBI, striking a deal to cooperate and provide information to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s ongoing investigation.

The plea caps a tumultuous 24 hours for Gates in which he was hit with fresh charges, changed lawyers and admitted crimes.

The guilty plea also marks a busy period for Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and related issues. He charged 13 Russians this month with participating in a criminal scheme to disrupt the election and a London-based lawyer pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying to FBI agents on the case.

According to a criminal information — a document filed earlier Friday with the permission of the defendant — Gates conspired to defraud the United States regarding the money he and his business partner Paul Manafort earned while working for a political party in Ukraine, and lied to the FBI in a Feb. 1, 2018 interview about a 2013 meeting between Manafort, a lobbyist, and a congressman.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-trump-campaign-official-rick-gates-expected-to-plead-guilty-and-cooperate-with-special-counsel-in-probe-of-russian-election-interference/2018/02/23/ceaaeac8-16b4-11e8-b681-2d4d462a1921_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_gates-11a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.96dd4aa5d417

[Freethinker65]

1. So much winning. Trump hires only the best.

[SansACause]

2. 5th conviction?

Or did I lose count?

[Wwcd]

4. 5 yes. HERE:

Link to tweet

?s=20

https://mobile.twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/967099370964385792

[SummerSnow]

14. and more to come

[Wwcd]

3. From Alt Spic Mic..

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

Link to tweet

?s=20

**
Is Rohrbacher named somewhere in this?

Link to tweet

?s=20

Here's the Twitter link:
AltSpic gets a bit too technical for me, but that is what she does.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Alt_Spicerlies/status/967099599331758080

[OhNo-Really]

15. So he didn't plead guilty to all the other crimes like

Money laundering, evidence tampering, and wiire fraud at the very least

I read the document. So many crimes rolled out in the doc

[Wwcd]

18. Yes it takes a few reads to get a grasp of the details

[OhNo-Really]

22. So Gates copped a Plea Deal it seems

because having read the indictments, he was looking at a very long stint in a fed pen.

[C Moon]

16. "Conspiracy Against the United States"

That sounds so frigging ominous. What the hell were these a-holes thinking?

[George II]

5. I'm losing track, by my count now its:

4 guilty pleas (Flynn, Papadopoulos, van der Zwaan, and now Gates)
17 indictments (13 Russians, 3 Russian companies, Manafort)

Did I get them all? Looks like Manafort is standing alone now other than those 13 virtually untouchable Russians.

If he has time today (only 4 PM), Mueller may have another up his sleeve for this afternoon.

[wishstar]

9. Also Richard Pinedo, the American who provided fake ID's to Russians, has pleaded guilty

so 5 guilty pleas of which 3 were officially part of Trump campaign and are cooperating as part of their plea deal

[George II]

10. Ah, thanks. I knew I missed one.

[muntrv]

6. This hat should hit bigly.

[FakeNoose]

7. My understanding is that Gates is/was a partner or employee of Manafort's

Maybe not now, but at the time of the election campaign, before Manafort was fired from the campaign. They worked together on the Russian oligarchs "investments" or money-laundering, depending on your point-of-view, but I don't know that Gates had anything to do with Trump's campaign directly.

So Manafort was calling the shots, and Gates did what he was told. Am I right? He was involved in overseas investments and maybe some tricky banking maneuvers, but he never had contact with Putin or the Trump campaign workers.

If I'm wrong on this, somebody please let me know. Thanks!

[neohippie]

8. WAPO article above

In the OP story linked above it says Gates was former top Trump campaign official

He was Deputy Campaign Manager of Trump's campaign during the 5 months that Manafort was there and stayed on afterwards I believe.

Here is another story that says what his role was.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/former-trump-campaign-aide-pleads-guilty-in-russia-probe-idUSKCN1G71TB

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former senior official in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators, and is cooperating with a federal probe into Russia’s role in the election.


Gates, who was a deputy campaign manager for Trump, is being investigated by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which is probing alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election.

He had been facing decades in prison on much more serious charges, including bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money, but under the charges he pleaded guilty to, he faces a maximum sentence of nearly six years.


snip...




Gates helped run the campaign’s day-to-day operations, played a key role at the Republican National Convention at which Trump was chosen as the party’s nominee and accompanied Trump on campaign flights.

He stayed on in the campaign even after Manafort resigned in August 2016 amid a controversy over cash payments from Ukraine. After Trump’s November 2016 election win, Gates was on Trump’s presidential transition team and his inaugural committee.

[FakeNoose]

11. This might not be correct

My point was that Gates has always been described as a "business associate" of Manafort's, but never as an employee of the White House or the Trump campaign.

I think Manafort (and Gates) had an office in Alexandria or Georgetown, and that's where Gates did his work. Maybe he performed tasks for the Trump campaign (at times) but I don't know that he ever went to the Trump Tower in New York. It sounds like he was an outsource and did things that Manafort asked him to do.

Again I could be reading this wrong, but I haven't seen any articles that said Rick Gates worked directly for Trump.

[OhNo-Really]

17. Did you read the very long list of overseas accounts involved, many in Gates name?

Gates and Mannafort partners although the US Mannafort llc is i. Mannafort and his wife's name. I wonder if she faces legal jeopardy?

[meadowlander]

19. He was deputy campaign chair, on the transition team and head of the inaugural committee.

Google "Rick Gates" and the first five hits describe him as a Trump campaign aide.

Where are you coming from with this?

[neohippie]

23. Did you not read the two above

How can you say you haven't read "any" articles that say Rick Gates worked directly for Trump

The original post linked to one, and I posted a second one. What do you fail to see, and what point are you trying to make by refusing to acknowledge that Gates was a highly ranked Trump campaign official, who also was a member of the Trump transition team.

Mueller is working towards proving that Gates, who traveled with Trump during the campaign and Manafort both top campaign staff members have connections to Russia, it's just another brick in building the strongest foundation of his case to show connections from Trump's campaign

[radliberal]

12. W.P.

Lock Him Up!

[BigmanPigman]

13. And Mueller just filed new charges of Manafort for paying

European politicians to lobby for him in Ukraine.

[George II]

20. Figured something like this this afternoon - see my post #5 above. Still early, too!!!

[OhNo-Really]

21. Sounds like Gates was given less than 24 hours to flip or else

Mueller team hitting hard.

Explains dons early twitter rant this mornings.

Fridays seem to be Mueller days