Rick Gates Cooperation Comes to Close as He Prepares to Testify

(Bloomberg) -- Former Trump campaign official Rick Gates’s time as a cooperating witness for the government is almost over.

Gates had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. On Monday, he and prosecutors in Washington asked a federal judge to schedule a sentencing date in the middle of December, indicating the government will no longer need his help.

Gates is slated to testify this week in the trial of Republican operative Roger Stone, who is charged with lying to a congressional panel probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also testified in the trials of his former boss, Paul Manafort, and one-time White House counsel to Barack Obama, Gregory Craig.

Gates was a critical witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. He was the star prosecution witness in the trial of Manafort, a who was convicted of bank and tax fraud in August.

Gates was Manafort’s right-hand man in his political consulting firm and worked with him for a decade, lobbying on behalf of Ukraine before joining him on Trump’s presidential campaign. Gates also remained on the Trump campaign after Manafort resigned in August 2016.

The case is U.S. v. Richard W. Gates III, 17-cr-201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

--With assistance from David Voreacos.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.