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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/politics/rick-gates-guilty-plea-mueller-investigation.html?ref=oembed
“Mr. Gates changed his plea on Friday during an appearance in a Washington courtroom, his eyes cast down as the government outlined the charges against him. A man who had made millions of dollars lobbying in Ukraine accepted the fate that may await him: a prison sentence for carrying out a financial conspiracy to hide the money he earned there.”
“He also admitted that he lied to investigators this month — while under indictment and negotiating with prosecutors — about the details of a 2013 meeting about Ukraine that Mr. Manafort had with a pro-Russian member of Congress.”
So what does Gates flipping mean for so-called ‘President Trump?’
“What the dramatic courtroom scene might mean for President Trump depends on what Mr. Gates has to offer the special counsel, though at the least, the plea agreement is further evidence that the Trump campaign attracted a cast of advisers who overstepped legal and ethical boundaries. The indictments so far have not indicated that either Mr. Gates or Mr. Manafort had information about the central question of Mr. Mueller’s investigation — whether Mr. Trump or his aides coordinated with the Russian government’s efforts to disrupt the 2016 election.”
UPDATE: A lot has changed in the past year. It’s now clear that Manafort was integral to Russian collusion and we have much of this information thanks to what Gates told Mueller. See chapter A for more.
End of UPDATE
Gates was no bit player or ‘coffee boy’-though neither was George Papadopoulos. But then Trump claims all the people who get into trouble after being on his campaign were ‘coffee boys’ even Manafort who was actually his campaign manager for 5 particularly important months in the campaign.
FN: Technically he didn’t become campaign manager until May 2016 but even prior to that he had already essentially replaced Corey Lewandowski and certainly the time he was CM-the run up to and then the RNC convention and the securing of the necessary delegates-was vitally important for the campaign.
While Gates was Manafort’s assistant he actually stayed with the Trump campaign long after Manafort left under a hazy Russian induced cloud in August, 2016, at the-get this request of one Steve Bannon:
“But Mr. Gates was present for the most significant periods of the campaign, as Mr. Trump began forging policy positions and his digital campaign operation engaged with millions of voters on social media platforms such as Facebook. Even after Mr. Manafort was fired by Mr. Trump in August 2016, Mr. Gates remained with the campaign at the request of Stephen K. Bannon, who took over as head of the campaign.
From there, Mr. Gates assumed a different role — as a liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee — and traveled aboard the Trump plane through the end of August.
Indeed, Gates was with Trump right through to the Inauguration -and beyond-with the fake largest crowd in history…
“In addition to offering visibility into the Trump campaign, Mr. Gates might be able to provide prosecutors with glimpses into decision-making in the months after Mr. Trump’s election victory. Mr. Gates was a senior aide on the presidential inaugural committee, and in the months after the inauguration, he worked with America First Policies, the main outside group supporting the Trump presidency.”