Gates to plead guilty in Mueller probe: NYT

Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates is set to plead guilty to multiple charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to a new report.

Two sources tell The New York Times that Gates’s guilty plea, which has been rumored for several days, could come as soon as Friday afternoon.

A plea could signal that Gates, who served as a top aide to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is ready to provide Mueller with information.

The report of a possible guilty plea comes the day after Mueller filed a host of new charges against Manafort and Gates.

A federal court in Virginia returned a 32-count superseding indictment charging Manafort and Gates with committing tax fraud, failing to file reports on foreign bank and financial accounts and bank fraud conspiracy.

The new indictment alleges Gates assisted Manafort in extracting money from his real estate holdings in order to fraudulently score more than $20 million in loans between 2015 and “at least January 2017.” 

The two men allegedly inflated Manafort’s and his company’s income and failed to disclose debts in order to be approved for the loans.

The charges are not linked to Manafort’s or Gates’s work on the Trump campaign.

Gates and Manafort were both initially charged by Mueller in October for a range of allegations, including bank fraud and money laundering, linked to their work for pro-Russia political parties un Ukraine. Both men pleaded not guilty.

The new indictment suggests that the end of the Ukrainian lobbying pushed Manafort toward bank fraud to stay afloat financially.

“In the second part of the scheme, between approximately 2015 and at least January 2017, when the Ukraine income dwindled after [Viktor] Yanukovych fled to Russia, Manafort, with the assistance of Gates, extracted money from Manafort’s United States real estate by, among other things, using those properties as collateral to obtain loans from multiple financial institutions,” the indictment states.

“Manafort and Gates fraudulently secured more than twenty million dollars in loans by falsely inflating [Manafort’s] and his company’s income and by failing to disclose existing debt in order to qualify for the loans.”

Manafort has denied any wrongdoing.

“Paul Manafort is innocent of the allegations set out in the newly filed indictments and he is confident that he will be acquitted of all charges,” said Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort.

“The new allegations against Mr. Manafort, once again, have nothing to do with Russia and 2016 election interference/collusion. Mr. Manafort is confident that he will be acquitted and violations of his constitutional rights will be remedied.”

— Updated at 10:28 a.m.