Gates sentencing set for next month

President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates will be sentenced in his criminal case on Dec. 17, according to a court filing published Friday.

Gates, who provided valuable testimony to former special counsel Robert Mueller in his case against former Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, pleaded guilty last year to charges including conspiracy against the United States and lying to investigators.

Part of Gates’s plea involved his cooperation with Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and a maximum prison term of nearly six years.

Gates’s testimony was crucial in the case against Manafort, which led to a conviction on tax and bank fraud charges and a 7.5-year prison sentence. He was also called as a witness against Stone, who was convicted Friday of lying to the U.S. Congress, obstruction and witness tampering.

Gates, a former political consultant and lobbyist, is one of multiple Trump associates to have been ensnared in Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March. Besides working as a campaign adviser, Gates also served on Trump’s presidential inaugural committee.