Richard Gates, a former top Donald Trump presidential campaign aide, will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign, the Los Angeles Times reports. “Rick Gates is going to change his plea to guilty,” said a source. Special counsel Robert Mueller is heading the prosecutions of Gates and Manafort as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump or his aides committed crimes before, during or since the campaign.
Gates, a longtime political consultant, can expect “a substantial reduction in his sentence” if he fully cooperates with the investigation, the source said. Gates is likely to serve about 18 months in prison. The delicate terms reached by the opposing lawyers will not be specified in writing: Gates “understands that the government may move to reduce his sentence if he substantially cooperates, but it won’t be spelled out.” One of the final discussion points has centered on how much cash or other valuables derived from Gates’ allegedly illegal activity that the government will require him to forfeit as part of the guilty plea. Gates, 45, who is married with four children, does not appear to be well positioned financially to sustain a high-powered legal defense. The indictment of Gates and Manafort showed that prosecutors had amassed substantial documentation to buttress their charges that the two men had engaged in a complex series of allegedly illegal transactions rooted in Ukraine.