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| Rick Gates: Former Trump campaign aide set to plead guilty in Mueller investigation | Rick Gates: Former Trump campaign aide set to plead guilty in Mueller investigation |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, is set to plead guilty to charges brought on my Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russian investigation. | President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, is set to plead guilty to charges brought on my Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russian investigation. |
| Mr Gates will plead guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators from Mr Mueller's office, according to court records. | Mr Gates will plead guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators from Mr Mueller's office, according to court records. |
| Separately last October, Mr Gates and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort were charged in relation to work the pair longtime business associates in Ukraine. The 12 counts included conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, seven counts of failure to report foreign bank accounts and transactions, and submitting false Foreign Agent Registration Act forms as well. | Separately last October, Mr Gates and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort were charged in relation to work the pair longtime business associates in Ukraine. The 12 counts included conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, seven counts of failure to report foreign bank accounts and transactions, and submitting false Foreign Agent Registration Act forms as well. |
| Both men had pleaded not guilty to those charges at that time but it is known that the pair earned millions from working with Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. | |
| The charges recently filed in Virginia relate to the money and the indictment alleges that Mr Gates "hid the existence and ownership of the foreign companies and bank accounts, falsely and repeatedly reporting to their tax preparers and to the US that they had no foreign bank accounts." | |
| He also is expected to plead guilty about lying regarding a meeting Mr Manafort reportedly had with a member of Congress and a lobbyist in 2013 to discuss Ukraine. | |
| Mr Gates is expected at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC the afternoon of 23 February. | Mr Gates is expected at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC the afternoon of 23 February. |
| He wrote in a letter to family and friends, first obtained by ABC News, that “despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, I have had a change of heart". | He wrote in a letter to family and friends, first obtained by ABC News, that “despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, I have had a change of heart". |
| “The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circus-like atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process," he wrote. | “The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circus-like atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process," he wrote. |
| He added that “the consequence is the public humiliation, which at this moment seems like a small price to pay for what our children would have to endure otherwise." | He added that “the consequence is the public humiliation, which at this moment seems like a small price to pay for what our children would have to endure otherwise." |
| Mr Gates has a young family and the deal he has struck with Mr Mueller earlier this week will likely spare him some jail time. | Mr Gates has a young family and the deal he has struck with Mr Mueller earlier this week will likely spare him some jail time. |
| ABC News reported that a source said it was "gut-wrenching" decision for the former aide who also faced a significant financial burden. | ABC News reported that a source said it was "gut-wrenching" decision for the former aide who also faced a significant financial burden. |
| Mr Gates testimony could be a blow to Mr Manafort, who stopped cooperating with the subsequent Congressional investigations into alleged collusion between Russian officials and the campaign team once Mr Mueller's indictment was filed. | |
| However, it is unclear what Mr Gates could offer Mr Mueller's team given that none of the charges filed against him either in October or the more recent charges in Virginia have to do with work he did on the 2016 campaign. | |
| While Mr Manafort was fired in August 2016 on suspicion of his foreign ties, Mr Gates stayed on the team and even served as a consultant to the transition team after Mr Trump's election victory. | |
| It was during this time that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had reportedly spoken with former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He pleaded guilty late last year to lying to the FBI about the December 2016 conversation. | |
| The retired three-star Army Lieutenant General had also misled Vice President Mike Pence, then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer about conversations he had with Mr Kislyak, who had then repeated the false claims to the public. | |
| George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the campaign, also pleaded guilty for lying to Mr Mueller's team about a meeting with a Russian national. |