Rick Gates sentenced to 45 days in jail, 3 years probation for conspiracy and lying to FBI in Mueller probe

WASHINGTON - Former deputy Trump campaign chairman Rick Gates was sentenced to 45 days in jail Tuesday despite crimes that could have put him in prison for five or six years after offering what prosecutors described as extraordinary cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

Gates can serve the sentence on weekends, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said. Gates, who will be on probation for three years, must pay a $20,000 fine and perform 300 hours of community service.

In sentencing Gates, Jackson said she struggled to balance his crimes with the vital "evidence about matters of grave and international importance" he offered federal prosecutors.

"Gates' information alone warranted, even demanded further investigation from the standpoint of national security, the integrity of our elections, and enforcing criminal laws," Jackson said.

A globe-trotting lobbyist who for a decade served as a right-hand man to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, Gates, 47, pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to the FBI and conspiring to conceal tens of millions of dollars earned from lucrative lobbying work he and Manafort had done for Ukraine. He went on to to testify against Manafort, and two others in cases stemming from the probe into whether any Americans conspired with Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.

In a charcoal suit and powder blue tie in federal court in Washington, D.C., Gates read quickly through prepared remarks, telling the judge he "greatly regrets mistakes" he made and accepts "complete responsibility" for his actions.

Jackson said it was "hard to overstate the amount of lies" and "the amount of money involved" in Gates' fraud, which including helping his former boss launder $18 million made in Ukraine while pocketing $3 million himself.

The scheme cheated American taxpayers out of more than $6 million that could have gone to pay for schools, roads and veterans' care, Jackson said.

"Gates was hardly a minor player," Jackson said

The lobbying work Gates and Manafort did for that money, she added, involved "lying to members of Congress and lying to the American public" about their Ukrainian clients.

"This deliberate effort to obscure the facts, to mislead, undermines our policymaking," Jackson said. "If people don't have the facts, democracy doesn't work."

But the judge gave Gates credit for testimony she considered not just "extremely candid" but vital in Manafort's case. The judge noted Gates detailed Manafort's sharing of polling data and discussion of a Ukrainian peace plan with an aide assessed by the FBI to have Russian intelligence connections.

"Not all witnesses with knowledge cooperated, and not all who cooperated testified truthfully, and many communications were lost when deleted, or encrypted and not saved," Jackson said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston called Gates' cooperation "extraordinary," especially with respect to Manafort's trial. She cited the intense media coverage, pressure from Manafort and his supporters, and powerful interests opposed to his testimony.

"Mr. Gates stands out as someone who amid such circumstances did the right thing," Gaston said.

Gates, she said, had also agreed to continue cooperating in "ongoing investigations" detailed in sealed court filings submitted to the judge in advance of sentencing.

Gates' original plea deal called for a possible five- or six-year prison term, but federal prosecutors in court filings last week said they would not oppose his attorney's request for no prison time.

Gates' attorney requested probation and community service.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District assumed the case in March when the special counsel probe concluded. The front row of the wood-paneled courtroom was a reunion of sorts for more than a half-dozen prosecutors and federal agents from Mueller's investigation. Andrew Weissmann, who oversaw the Manafort prosecution, warmly greeted both Gates and his attorney Thomas Green.

Gates, of Richmond, Virginia, has complied with three congressional subpoenas and spent more than 500 hours with federal and state prosecutors, Green said. He cooperated with prosecutors while caring for his wife, whom supporters said was diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and their four children.