U.S. seeks no prison time for Rick Gates, senior 2016 Trump campaign aide

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post




Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended that former deputy Trump campaign chairman Rick Gates serve no prison time, citing his ‘extraordinary assistance’ in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, according to a new court filing. Prosecutors said his cooperation is continuing, without making details public.

Gates and his longtime boss, Paul Manafort, were the first individuals publicly charged by Mueller in October 2017 as the special counsel sought to learn whether any Americans conspired with Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. Manafort served as one of Donald Trump’s campaign chairmen in the 2016 race.

Gates, 47, pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiring to conceal proceeds from a decade of lucrative lobbying work that he and Manafort had done for Ukraine and lying to the FBI, and began cooperating with firsthand insight into several of the president’s senior aides and activities. Although Manafort resigned from the campaign in August 2016 as word of his Ukraine work surfaced, Gates remained until Election Day, working at one point for the Republican National Committee and then became deputy chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee.

He is one of six Trump aides or associates convicted in cases from the special counsel probe, but unlike the others, made repeat appearances in court to bolster federal cases. In a 19-page filing and a separate, sealed summary, U.S. prosecutors described Gates’s cooperation as ongoing and wrote that in addition to testifying in three Mueller-related trials, he met with investigators more than 50 times, voluntarily surrendered electronic devices for broad government searches, and gave information usined in more than a dozen search warrants.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-seeks-no-prison-time-for-rick-gates-senior-2016-trump-campaign-aide-citing-extraordinary-assistance-in-mueller-probe/2019/12/10/418dfede-1a98-11ea-b4c1-fd0d91b60d9e_story.html

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Full headline: U.S. seeks no prison time for Rick Gates, senior 2016 Trump campaign aide, citing ‘extraordinary assistance’ in Mueller probe

[SterlingPound]

1. this country is over

and these are the last shovels of dirt covering its grave

not the first

[BumRushDaShow]

2. I think this was expected

since he cooperated with Mueller and I believe did a plea agreement. He pretty much nailed Manafort.

[SterlingPound]

4. Papodopolis only got 14 days

they were willing to let Flynn off with zero time

this country has no real equal rule of law.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. 'Cause he cooperated.

And with all the whining that he and his wife were doing at the time, he was basically in and back out in a jiffy.

He and Gates were the low-hanging fruit.

But note that Flynn is not out of the woods. Since he has now started bucking the agreements thinking he'll get a pardon, who knows what he'll get and whether he'll be thrown under the bus. We'll find out about him in a little over a week!

Judge sets Dec. 18 sentencing date for Michael Flynn even as his lawyers cry foul

`By Marshall Cohen

Updated 3:35 PM ET, Tue September 10, 2019

Washington (CNN)The federal judge overseeing the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn set a December sentencing date, despite concerns from Flynn's lawyers, who mounted a fierce assault in court against the special counsel team that charged Flynn two years ago.

Prosecutors also subtly opened the door to asking the judge to send Flynn to prison. They previously recommended only probation, but that was largely hinged upon Flynn's role as a model cooperator. Since then, Flynn's relationship with the Justice Department has all but collapsed. Asked by the judge during Tuesday's court hearing, prosecutor Brandon Van Grack declined to say that the earlier recommendation still stands.

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the DC District Court said Tuesday he wanted to set a "tentative" date for sentencing on December 18, though there are still a handful of issues that need to be settled first. Flynn was President Donald Trump's first national security adviser in the White House but was fired after only a few weeks on as his exposure in the widening Russia investigation became untenable.

Tuesday's hearing came at virtually the same time Trump announced he had fired John Bolton as national security adviser. The new sentencing date is exactly one year after Flynn's previous sentencing hearing, which was abruptly delayed to give Flynn more time to assist federal investigators. The case has seen a seismic shift over the past year. Flynn transformed from a repentant government cooperator to a leading Justice Department antagonist, whose new team of lawyers are arguing that he was only charged because of "egregious government misconduct."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/10/politics/michael-flynn-sentencing-scheduled/index.html

[SterlingPound]

10. how much info was it really

if the prosecutors are willing to let people like Flynn off with zero time?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Flynn had been out there for a long time

And I think they were dangling that to see what might shake loose from him (and apparently he reneged).

Surprise: Trump allegedly got his Ukraine conspiracy theory from the Russia-tied criminals on his campaign

By Aaron Blake
November 4, 2019 at 10:21 a.m. EST

/snip

Flynn’s ties to Russia are more tenuous, but he has made a series of curious decisions involving himself with it. In 2013, as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, he became the first U.S. official to visit Russia’s GRU, its military intelligence agency. Flynn then reportedly sought to invite GRU officers to the United States, even after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. After leaving the Obama administration, Flynn sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala in 2015 for the English-language Russian propaganda channel RT and was paid $45,000 for his trip. He was paid another $23,000 by Russia-tied entities that year, according to documents released in 2017.

When serving briefly as Trump’s national security adviser in early 2017, Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and investigators about his talks with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, claiming they had not discussed sanctions during the transition period even though they had. It was enough to cause Sally Yates, then acting attorney general, to warn the White House that Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Flynn would later plead guilty to lying to the investigators.

/snip

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/04/surprise-trump-allegedly-got-his-ukraine-conspiracy-theory-russia-tied-criminals-his-campaign/

[DeminPennswoods]

16. Flynn's a fool to expect a pardon

Manafort and Trump were friends for decades and Manafort's still sitting in prison and likely to remain there. Trump has no loyalty to anyone but himself. Neither Flynn nor Manafort are useful to Trump, no need to for him to give two hoots about them and he won't.

[mopinko]

17. flynn has not yet been sentence.

the sentencing judge sent him back to cooperate more if he didnt want a long, long prison sentence.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Oh, I dunno. If he helped nail the coffin shut, give him a break.

[PatSeg]

5. I agree

It sounds as if, unlike Manafort, Gates was very cooperative and helpful. If he helped to expose more corruption, then I have no problem giving him a break.

[bluestarone]

6. +1

Agree

[not fooled]

15. Yeah, and

gates didn't play the "I'll hang tough for the Don and then expect a pardon" game.





We need a "jail" smiley for all of these crooks.

[abqtommy]

18. +10

[bucolic_frolic]

7. "cooperation is continuing"

Oh my.

[LenaBaby61]

8. "cooperation is continuing"

And he's already been interviewed for 500 hours, and that is a LOT of cooperation.

[SonofDonald]

12. He was right there

In the middle of everything, he knows what they did and who they did it with.

Like ol lev parnas, I really think these two know for a fact that they would be spending decades in prison and decided they didn't want that.

Somebody's going to be offered to get away Scot-Free for their crimes and it might as well be them.

This was all about money nothing else, makes it easier as its not a cause they're turning on.

It's just other thieves.

[nevergiveup]

13. I am okay with this on Gates

but I want to see Flynn in an orange jump suit. He is a traitor and despicable human being.

[Vinca]

14. This is a good move. It demonstrates what happens when you fess up, cooperate and

let the chips fall. People in the Trump administration should pay attention. I've got a feeling things won't work out quite so well for Michael Flynn.

[Botany]

19. No jail time for helping to fix a US election by passing advanced data analytics on to Russia?

Well, then we damn well should see the entire Mueller report.