Thread: Ex-Trump campaign aide Rick Gates to plead guilty, testify against Paul Manafort

Ex-Trump campaign aide Rick Gates to plead guilty, testify against Paul Manafort

BY
Elizabeth Elizalde
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 4:43 PM

A former top campaign aide to President Trump is expected to plead guilty to fraud charges and testify against Paul Manafort, the ex-campaign chairman, according to a report.

Rick Gates will take a plea deal “within the next few days,” a person with knowledge of the development told the Los Angeles Times.

Mueller charged Gates and Manafort on money laundering charges in October as part of his probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election. They both pleaded not guilty.

Gates' change of heart comes after weeks of negotiations between his defense lawyer and two of special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors, according to the Times.

His plea change could reduce his sentence — which could be up to 18 months in prison, a person familiar with the talks told the newspaper.

Gates, 45, and Manafort are accused of engaging in illegal transactions in Ukraine and serving as unregistered agents for the country.

His testimony could put the “cherry on top” for the government's strong case against Manafort, a source told the Times.

However, Gates doesn’t have information for Mueller’s team that would “turn the screws on Trump," the source added.

On Friday, Mueller charged 13 Russians with interfering in the 2016 election that was aimed at helping Trump win the presidency. Trump has repeatedly called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt.”

“The results of the election were not impacted,” the President tweeted Saturday. “The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.3828468

CNN is reporting that the fraud-related charge is failure to register as a foreign agent and failure to report foreign bank accounts. I think he's innocent of anything except oversights in paperwork. A lot of people don't even agree with the interpretations of the government on some of these laws as to who is required to do what, when and under what circumstances. It's a shame people like Gates and Flynn are in these positions because it all seems very unfair.

FBI agents who interviewed Flynn said he didn't lie to them, yet Paul Mueller decides to frame him up with a bunch of crap and force him to take a plea deal to admit to something he didn't do to stop it?

CNN is saying Gates family, he's 45, married with 4 small children, were urging him to end it and make it go away, because of the financial drain defending against it.

Justice isn't supposed to be just for the wealthy, it's supposed to be for everyone. Our government is not supposed to engage in Witch Hunts, yet that is exactly what they're doing, seems to me. This is an old case from over 10 years ago that the US DOJ could never gather enough evidence to prosecute. So how does Mueller get evidence to prosecute?!!

Maybe he did something wrong, I don't know, without a trial we can watch on TV, we'll never know, that's the real shame of it.

P. S. No information or evidence on Trump or Trump Campaign from Rick Gates according to this article.

Rick Gates attorneys seek to withdraw from case

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 2:09 PM ET, Fri February 2, 2018

(CNN)The trial attorneys who want to stop representing former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates will be in court Wednesday for a private hearing about their reasons for withdrawing, a federal judge said Friday.

Gates' attorneys, Walter Mack, Shanlon Wu and Annemarie McAvoy, told the court late Thursday they wanted to withdraw from the case immediately.

They provided a reason to the court under seal. Mack, one of the now-former attorneys for Gates, declined to comment Thursday.
Gates pleaded not guilty in October to eight charges of money laundering and failing to register foreign lobbying and other business. His longtime business partner, former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, pleaded not guilty to nine counts in the same case as Gates.

CNN recently reported that Gates had quietly added a prominent white-collar attorney, Tom Green, to his defense team, signaling a possible change to his legal approach.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/01/polit...raw/index.html

Just some background. Sounds like he's had difficulty getting a good legal team put together. A lot of people do. You don't know what you've got until you're way down the road. Finding a good lawyer you can afford who understands your case especially if you're an individual and it's business related is one of the hardest things in the world to do right now in America, whether it's civil or white collar accusations. The most common reason for a withdrawal is failure to pay them. Whether this is Gates issue, running out of money, or not, it would be most people's problem.

Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Adviser George Papadopoulos Guilty Plea Could Be More Important Than Manafort's Indictment

Paul Manafort and Rick Gates face decades in prison, millions in fines

By MICHAEL BIESECKER | The Associated Press
PUBLISHED: October 30, 2017 at 11:06 am | UPDATED: October 30, 2017 at 4:45 pm

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Manafort’s business associate Rick Gates face decades in federal prison and millions of dollars in potential fines if convicted on all counts in a sprawling federal indictment unsealed Monday.

Manafort potentially faces up to 80 years in prison, according to a review of the federal charges and the relevant statutes by The Associated Press. Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, faces up to 70 years.

Prosecutors could still file additional charges against the pair. If convicted at trial, the law gives federal judges wide latitude in imposing prison sentences and fines.

Prosecutors allege that Manafort and Gates worked as unregistered agents of the government of Ukraine and the Party of Regions, a pro-Russian political party led by Victor Yanukovych. While serving as president of the former Soviet republic from 2010 to 2014, Yanukovych was closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The indictment says that up to $75 million flowed through overseas accounts controlled by the two Americans. Manafort is alleged to have laundered more than $18 million he used to buy property and goods in the United States. Gates is alleged to have transferred more than $3 million to accounts he controlled.

A summary of the charges encompassed in the 31-page indictment and the potential penalties:

COUNT ONE: Conspiracy Against the United States

Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to knowingly and intentionally defraud and commit crimes against the United States between 2006 and 2017. If found guilty of this count, each potentially faces up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

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COUNT TWO: Conspiracy to Launder Money

Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to transfer funds from outside the United States to and through places inside the country without properly disclosing the transactions or paying required federal taxes. Penalties for this count include up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of either $500,000 or twice the monetary value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater.

COUNTS THREE THROUGH SIX: Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts

The indictment alleges that for each calendar year between 2012 and 2015, Manafort failed to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than $10,000. Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to $100,000, or up to 50 percent of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years encompassed in the counts.

COUNTS SEVEN THROUGH NINE: Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts

The indictment also alleges that between 2012 and 2014 Gates failed to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than $10,000. Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to $100,000, or up to 50 percent of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years encompassed in the counts.

COUNT TEN: Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal

Prosecutors allege that both men failed to register with the U.S. attorney general as foreign agents of the government of Ukraine, the Part of Regents and Yanukovych between 2008 and 2014. Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

COUNT ELEVEN: False and misleading statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act

The indictment alleges that both men made multiple false statements to federal officials in relation to their failure to register as foreign agents of the Ukrainian government.

Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

COUNT TWELVE: False Statements

Prosecutors allege that between November 2016 and February 2017 that Manafort and Gates conspired together and caused others to make false statements and conceal crimes against the United States. The penalty for this count is up to five years in prison.

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/30...-prison-fines/

Allegations in a political Witch Hunt aren't worth 2 cents in my opinion. What do any of these allegations have to do with the Russia Hoax? Nothing. The IRS is the most equipped and ready prosecutorial agency on the planet, no Special Counsel is required to investigate or prosecute discrepancies or violations. Taxpayers are being exploited by this process, paying enormous Special Counsel fees for issues that government workers are paid to deal with and address.