FREE NEWS LINKS
HOME SEARCH
Updates & changes ongoing ....
---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are up to date.
Also see: Collusion; George Nader; Russia; Paul Manafort; Russia; Robert Mueller; investigation;
Jump to: 2017; 2018; 2019;
Undated: Richard William Gates III[1] (born April 27, 1972) is an American former political consultant and lobbyist who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements.[2] He is a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort and served as deputy to Manafort when the latter was campaign manager of the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016, and after under Kellyanne Conway. [3]
Gates and Manafort were both indicted in October 2017 on charges related to their consulting work with pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine.[3] Additional charges were filed in District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on February 21, 2018, however these charges were withdrawn on February 27, 2018, without prejudice, as agreed to in his plea bargain with Robert S. Mueller III.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Gates_%28political_consultant%29
-- 2017 --
October 30: Paul Manafort's right-hand man, Rick Gates, is slated to leave his home in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday morning to surrender to federal authorities ... An indictment issued by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., against Gates and Manafort contains 12 counts, including conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy of money laundering and failing to disclose work as foreign agents ... Gates joined the Trump team at the same time as Manafort, with responsibilities that included wrangling GOP convention delegates and arranging the inaugural ceremony.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rick-gates-paul-manaforts-hand-man-facing-indictment/story?id=50809402
October 30: According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates hid "tens of millions of dollars" from their work in Ukraine from 2006 through at least 2016 by laundering "the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts".
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/trump-aides-paul-manafort-rick-gates-charged-171030131226680.html
-- 2018 --
February 14: [Oleg] Deripaska’s ties with [Paul] Manafort date back to 2005, when they reportedly signed a $10 million contract. But things went sour, and Deripaska sued Manafort and his associate Rick Gates earlier this year for $25 million in damages over the failed business dealings.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-youtube-instagram-kremlin-oligarch_us_5a83f9f0e4b0adbaf3d8eb6f
February 15: Rick Gates, a campaign adviser to President Trump and former business partner of Paul Manafort, is close to finalizing a plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office
After interviews like this, prosecutors investigate the information they received, then negotiate charges and potential sentences. Gates' plea deal could be announced in the next few days ...
http://theweek.com/speedreads/755700/trump-campaign-adviser-rick-gates-reportedly-close-making-plea-deal-mueller
February 22: Paul Manafort, Rick Gates laundered more than $30 million, according to new Mueller indictment
Dramatically escalating the pressure and stakes, special counsel Robert Mueller filed additional criminal charges Thursday against President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman and his business associate.
The filing adds allegations of tax evasion and bank fraud and significantly increases the legal jeopardy facing Paul Manafort, who managed Trump’s campaign for several months in 2016, and longtime associate Rick Gates. Both had already faced the prospect of at least a decade in prison if convicted at trial.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/former-trump-campaign-chair-paul-manafort-faces-new-tax-charges-in-mueller-probe
February 23: How Paul Manafort is connected to the Trump, Russia investigation
Manafort and Rick Gates, his business associate, were originally indicted in October on multiple counts that included conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money and making false statements.
Nearly four months later, on Feb. 22, the pair was hit with additional tax evasion and bank fraud charges. The additional charges involve much of the same conduct Manafort and Gates were initially charged with, but it increases the amount of money Manafort, 68, is accused of laundering to $30 million.
The charges against Manafort and Gates don’t relate to any allegations of misconduct during Trump’s campaign.
But Mueller has incorporated that investigation into his own probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/23/how-paul-manafort-is-connected-to-trump-russia-investigation.html
March 26: How much is Rick Gates telling Mueller about Trump?
Lawyers and Trump associates describe deep unease about what the former Manafort deputy might be telling Mueller in exchange for leniency.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/26/rick-gates-mueller-trump-484739
June 5: Alex Van Der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer and the only person to serve prison time in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, was deported and arrived back in the Netherlands Tuesday, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Van Der Zwaan, the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his work with two of President Trump's former campaign aides. He served 30 days in a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
In his plea, Van Der Zwaan admitted to deleting emails and lying to prosecutors about a conversation with Rick Gates, a former Trump aide, about work they'd done for a Ukrainian political party, which was aligned with Russia.
Prosecutors say Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, and Gates helped pay for the report.
Both were accused of secretly working on behalf of pro-Russian factions in Ukraine, then laundering millions of dollars in profits through foreign bank accounts. Prosecutors charged that the men sought to cover up their work even while they held senior roles in Trump’s campaign.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/05/alex-van-der-zwaan-lawyer-charged-muellers-russia-probe-deported/674731002/
August 6: Rick Gates Testifies He Committed Crimes With Paul Manafort
Rick Gates was just an intern when he first crossed paths with Paul Manafort.
Years later Mr. Gates went to work for him, rising to become right hand man to Mr. Manafort, once a powerful force in Republican politics who more recently had turned his sights to lucrative opportunities abroad.
On Monday, Mr. Gates was Mr. Manafort’s ultimate nemesis, the prosecution’s star witness in Mr. Manafort’s trial on tax and bank fraud charges stemming from work they did together for pro-Russia political forces in Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/us/politics/rick-gates-manafort-trump-trial.html
August 7: Six bombshells from Rick Gates' testimony in the Paul Manafort trial
Gates testified that he engaged in an extensive criminal conspiracy with Manafort that lasted seven years and included lying to the Internal Revenue Service to avoid paying taxes and providing false documents to banks to obtains millions of dollars in loans.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/07/rick-gates-five-bombshells-his-paul-manafort-trial-testimony/921899002/
August 7: Paul Manafort’s longtime deputy told jurors Tuesday how he spent years disguising millions of dollars in foreign income as loans to lower the former Trump campaign chairman’s tax bill.
Rick Gates, the government’s star witness, recounted how he and Manafort used offshore shell companies and bank accounts in Cyprus to funnel the money, all while concealing the accounts and the income from the IRS.
https://www.twincities.com/2018/08/07/paul-manafort-trial-gates-describes-funneling-millions-through-cyprus-accounts/
August 7: Rick Gates Delivers a Public Lesson on Money Laundering and Political Corruption
Tuesday was Rick Gates’s second day testifying as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Paul Manafort, his former boss, and he spent a lot of time explaining how money flowed from Ukraine, where he and Manafort had a run of lucrative years doing consulting work for pro-Russian interests, to shell companies in Cyprus, to other shell companies in the Caribbean, and eventually to the United States. In the afternoon, Gates was subjected to a withering cross-examination by Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, during which he admitted that he’d had an extramarital affair and that he’d repeatedly stolen money from Manafort.
It’s not clear yet how Gates’s testimony will affect the outcome of the trial, in which Manafort is charged with tax evasion, bank fraud, and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. But his time on the witness stand provided an invaluable public lesson in how tax evasion, money laundering, and political corruption work.
The importance of these phenomena goes well beyond this trial, and also beyond the special counsel Robert Mueller’s broader inquiry into Russia’s activities during the 2016 election. (Among other things, Mueller is widely believed to be looking into whether Donald Trump and his Presidential campaign had any surreptitious financial ties to Russian interests.) The ability of rich people such as Manafort and his oligarchic clients to shuffle money across borders, beyond the purview of tax collectors and law-enforcement authorities, is a huge and intractable problem. In many places, these practices are denuding tax bases, corrupting a large class of professional enablers, and undermining public confidence in the political and financial systems.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/rick-gates-delivers-a-public-lesson-on-money-laundering-and-political-corruption
August 8: Rick Gates, Battered In Cross-Examination, Ends Testimony In Paul Manafort Trial
Gates testified for a total of about 10 hours this week, before his testimony ended around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Prosecutors then called to the stand an FBI forensic accountant, Morgan Magionos, and an IRS revenue agent.
Their testimony was part of a broader strategy by the government to use documents and testimony from those familiar with Manafort's finances to prove fraud and intent, as opposed to relying only on the word of Gates.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/08/636626602/war-of-credibility-over-rick-gates-continues-in-paul-manafort-fraud-trial
August 14:
The bombshell acknowledgment marked a dramatic high point in Paul Manafort's trial, which was mostly filled with bureaucratic testimony.
“He, unsolicited by me, he blurted it out, and that it was over a short period of time,” Kevin Downing said the next day during a private bench conference with U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III and Mueller’s prosecutors.
Moments earlier, Downing had suggested in open court that Gates had as many as four extramarital affairs during his time working as Manafort’s longtime deputy running an international political consulting firm. The attorney insisted the topic was legitimate because Mueller’s team had stressed that a plea deal Gates had struck could be tossed out if he lied on the witness stand.
"It's going to go to your ripping up his plea agreement for lying yesterday," the defense attorney said.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/14/rick-gates-extramarital-affairs-manafort-trial-777352
October 8: Rick Gates Sought Online Manipulation Plans From Israeli Intelligence Firm for Trump Campaign
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/rick-gates-psy-group-trump.html
October 9: Rick Gates Sought Israeli Help to Crush Trump’s Opponents
The former deputy chairman of the Trump campaign was reportedly in contact with an Israeli intelligence firm about a social-media disinformation campaign targeting Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/rick-gates-robert-mueller-ted-cruz-hillary-clinton
October 11: Rick Gates continues to help Mueller investigation, lawyer says
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/11/politics/gates-robert-mueller/index.html
October 15: A federal judge on Monday approved a request to end GPS location monitoring of Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign deputy chairman who is a key cooperating defendant in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted Gates’ request, allowing him to be relieved of a bracelet that tracks his movements as he awaits sentencing and continues to meet with prosecutors. She also agreed to allow Gates, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, to travel freely in the area around his home, northern Virginia and Washington, and to end a nightly curfew.
Prosecutors from Mueller’s team did not object to Gates’ request, nor to a similar one he made in February just after he pleaded guilty to two felony charges: conspiracy against the U.S. and making a false statement in a federal investigation.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/15/rick-gates-gps-monitoring-902387
November 14: Mueller delays sentencing for ex-Trump aide Gates over ongoing cooperation
The delay stands in contrast to two other high-profile former Trump officials who are moving toward sentencing in the Mueller investigation.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/14/rick-gates-sentencing-mueller-probe-990758
-- 2019 --
January 7: Ex-Trump Aide Rick Gates Settles Suit Over Unpaid Legal Bills in Mueller Probe
Rick Gates, a former senior official in President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, has settled a suit against him by his former attorneys, who claimed he stiffed them on nearly $369,000 in legal fees defending him in the criminal action brought by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller III.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ex-trump-aide-rick-gates-012841694.html
Webpage visitor counts provided by
