U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday sentenced Donald Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, to 3 years’ probation, 45 days in jail—which can be served on weekends—and $20,000 in fines. Gates is also required to complete 300 hours of community service. The sentence comes after a deal Gates made when he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and false statements in February 2018.
The Washington Post reports that although Gates faced a potential five- or six-year prison sentence, Judge Jackson believed the scope of Gates’ cooperation was worthy of consideration, saying, “Gates’s information alone warranted, even demanded further investigation from the standpoint of national security, the integrity of our elections, and enforcing criminal laws.”
Gates was one of the first people rumored to be interested in taking a deal from special investigator Robert Mueller, and after Mueller’s team continued to bring more and more charges against him, Gates caved. Gates was also the star witness in the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, detailing the enormous effort on both his and Manafort’s part to hide millions of fraudulent lobbying dollars in their pockets. Last week, the Post reported that U.S. prosecutors had presented Judge Jackson with a 19-page filing and a separate sealed summary describing “Gates’s ongoing cooperation” in numerous ongoing “Mueller-related trials.” According to prosecutors, Gates met with them 50 times to spill the beans.