Citing ‘Extraordinary Assistance,’ Feds Don’t Oppose Gates’ Request To Avoid Prison

WASHINGTON,DC-FEB23: Rick Gates, a former top official in Trump's campaign, leaves the Federal courthouse with his lawyer Tom Green, in Washington, DC, February 23, 2018, after pleading guilty ti conspiracy and lying... WASHINGTON,DC-FEB23: Rick Gates, a former top official in Trump's campaign, leaves the Federal courthouse with his lawyer Tom Green, in Washington, DC, February 23, 2018, after pleading guilty ti conspiracy and lying to the FBI(Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Federal prosecutors and Rick Gates, the President’s former deputy campaign chairman, agree: Gates did the crimes, but he shouldn’t do any time.

Gates asked a judge for probation, not prison time, in a sentencing memorandum filed Monday, more than 21 months after he pleaded guilty to conspiring against the United States and lying to the FBI.

And on Tuesday, Justice Department prosecutors filed their own memorandum commending Gates for his “extraordinary” cooperation with several investigations, and saying they did not oppose his probation request — as long as he kept cooperating.

Gates “worked assiduously” to cooperate with several investigations after pleading guilty, prosecutors said, providing “extraordinary” and “substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of others.” He cooperated despite receiving pressure not to, they said, “including assurances of monetary assistance.”

Gates attorney Thomas Green claimed his client spent more than 500 hours with prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, other federal and state law enforcement, and congressional investigators. Prosecutors said Gates met “on more than 50 occasions with numerous prosecutors and investigators from a range of Department of Justice components.”

Information from Gates has been used in more than a dozen search warrants, prosecutors said.

Notably, prosecutors noted in Tuesday’s memo that Gates “has provided truthful and valuable information in a number of different ongoing matters.”

In his memo, Green said he believed the government agreed that Gates “has fulfilled every obligation he agreed to (and then some).”

Gates and his former boss, Paul Manafort, were charged in 2017 with acting as unregistered foreign agents, money laundering, and a series of financial crimes and other offenses. Manafort had brought Gates onto the campaign in March 2016, and Gates continued to serve Trump after the election, as deputy chairman of the President’s inaugural committee.

Ultimately, Gates served as a witness against ManafortRoger Stone and the former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, and was cited dozens of times in special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report.

Prosecutors noted that the men Gates testified against “enjoy support from the upper echelons of American politics and society.” His cooperation, they noted, made him the subject of intense media scrutiny “in high profile matters, against powerful individuals, in the midst of a particularly turbulent environment.”

Gates’ sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 17.

This post has been updated.

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for drtv drtv says:

    You don’t always get what you want, Rick.

  2. Good luck with that.

    ETA: where’s that one word answer again???

  3. Avatar for fgs fgs says:

    He wants his Rolodex of criminals back before Rudi G gets hold of it.

  4. To coin a phrase:

    “Lock him up!”

  5. Dear Mr. Gates:
    This is what happens when you leave home on a trip without either googlemaps or an in-dash GPS at hand. It’s difficult to know exactly where your travels will take you.
    Sincerely,
    The Courts

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