By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates is nearing plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reports.
Gates and his longtime business partner Paul Manafort were indicted in October on 12 counts involving money laundering, conspiracy against the U.S. and tax fraud. They pleaded not guilty.
Gates has been negotiating a plead deal for nearly a month with the special counsel team investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to undermine the 2016 presidential election.
If Gates enters a plea deal, he would become the third known former Trump aide to cooperate in the rapidly evolving investigation. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign-policy adviser George Papadopoulo pleaded guilty late last year to making false statements to federal investigators in exchange for cooperating with the prosecutors.
Mueller’s team is planning to file new tax-related charges against Gates and Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman.
The charges stem from work Manafort and Gates did with Ukrainian politicians who are allies with Russia. They are accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars from the work through U.S. and foreign companies and bank accounts.
Manafort, who is under house arrest and faces up to 15 years in prison, has pledged to fight the charges and even sued Mueller and the Justice Department, claiming the special counsel probe overreached its authority.
It’s not yet clear what information Gates is offering to prosecutors.
