Rick Gates Gets 45 Days In Jail After Flipping On Manafort, Stone

Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and 300 hours of community service on counts of conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. He will also be required to pay a $20,000 fine.

BREAKING: Gates sentenced to three years of probation and also 45 days in jail, to be served on weekends. Also a $20,000 fine.

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) December 17, 2019

Gates, 46, was Paul Manafort’s right-hand man, helping the former Trump campaign manager conceal millions of dollars in overseas payments. After he was caught lying to federal investigators, he flipped on Manafort, as well as Roger Stone and Greg Craig – becoming the government’s star witness after agreeing to cooperate.

Gates was Manafort’s right-hand man and became his deputy when Manafort was named chairman of the Trump campaign in 2016. After Manafort was forced to step down over revelations about his work in Ukraine, Gates stayed on, becoming a liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee. He helped plan President Trump’s inauguration before leaving for a job with a pro-Trump outside group. –CBS News

In August of 2018, Gates testified that he was involved in criminal activity while working for Manafort, and admitted to having siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from their Cyprus-based bank accounts without Manafort’s knowledge.

“I added money to expense reports and created expense reports” that were not accurate, Gates said, to pad his salary by “several hundred thousand” dollars.

Gates also provided crucial testimony that Manafort instructed him to forge financial documents and IRS forms.

Jackson notes $75M flowed through offshore accounts controlled by Manafort and Gates. She adds, “Those are facts. Those are not alleged facts. Those are not alternative facts.”

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) December 17, 2019

Federal prosecutors had asked US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to sentence Gates to probation. Either way, the six-week sentence is a far cry from the 10 years in prison he was facing.