Rick Gates, Former Trump Campaign Aide, Sentenced to 45 Days in Jail
Washington (CNN)Rick Gates, one of the most significant former Trump campaign advisers who flipped on President Donald Trump in the Mueller investigation, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation by a federal judge Tuesday morning.
But the judge veered from simply giving him his sentence to acknowledge the significant role he had played as a witness in the Mueller investigation.Gates, a longtime deputy to 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort who shared searing details about Trump’s efforts in 2016 with special counsel Robert Mueller, admitted to helping Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts from their years of Ukraine lobbying work. The judge’s words, and Gates’ final moments in court, pointed to the tremendous split in recent weeks between investigators and Trump and Attorney General William Barr, who’ve attempted to undercut the Russia investigation. Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s comments on Tuesday emphasized how “this administration” had rightfully investigated multiple contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians, and how witnesses like Gates, under enormous political pressure, chose to share the truth.
More: Rick Gates, former Trump campaign aide, sentenced to 45 days in jail