Day 431: Report: Trump Team Terrified Over Gates’ Cooperation With Mueller
While Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s arrest garnered the big headlines, it was the man arrested with him, Rick Gates, who could be the biggest piece of the puzzle for special counsel Robert Mueller.
Gates, who was Manafort’s right-hand man for years, was indicted with Manafort for multiple crimes, including money laundering, tax evasion, bank fraud and tax fraud. Gates has pleaded guilty to two felony charges, with all indications pointing to his cooperating with Mueller in exchange for lesser sentences.
Cooperation could come in the form of added evidence against Manafort or against other members of the Trump team. While Manafort had a more senior role and was more widely known, he was gone from the campaign by August 2016. Gates, however, stuck around through Trump’s election and inauguration.
According to a Politico report, all of this has Trump’s team on edge.
While Gates now wears a GPS monitor around his ankle, in 2016 he wore a Secret Service lapel pin that gave him easy access to Trump on the campaign trail and at Trump Tower.
“He saw everything,” said a Republican consultant who worked with Gates during the campaign. The consultant called Gates one of the “top five” insiders whom Mueller could have tapped as a cooperative government witness. One defense attorney in the case said that Gates’s plea has triggered palpable alarm in Trump world.
Trump aides and associates understand that Mueller is sure to ask Gates not just about Manafort but also about his interactions with Trump, his family members and his 2016 campaign team.
“They’ve been very concerned about it,” said the defense attorney. “It’s something they’re worried about.”
One of the conditions of plea deals in situations like this is full candor. If Gates knows something and doesn’t disclose it, he risks his deal being yanked by Mueller. To protect himself, he is likely going to be overinclusive, and that has Trump’s team more than a bit troubled.
431 days in, 1031 to go
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