It wasn't necessarily a surprise that former Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates confessed to committing crimes on Monday as the bank and tax fraud trial of his former business partner Paul Manafort resumed, but that didn't make it any less dramatic. As Manafort locked his eyes on his former associate and mentee sitting about 15 feet away on the witness stand, Gates delivered a detailed account of the many illicit misdeeds the two committed together, telling the jury he did so at Manafort's direction.
“Did you commit crimes with Mr. Manafort?” prosecutor Greg Andres asked Gates.
“Yes,” Gates responded.
As he answered questions, Gates kept his eyes on the prosecutor. Manafort, seated at the defense table, stared intently at his former business partner.
In fact, Gates admitted to a lengthy list of crimes, including ones he committed alone, like lying to prosecutors and embezzling a couple hundred thousand dollars from Manafort. It was all a strategic effort by the prosecution to make Gates come across as a trustworthy witness who came entirely clean with the jury before the defense tries to drag Gates through the mud to destroy his credibility. Putting forward a star cooperating witness in the middle of the trial is also a safeguard against having that witness be the jury's final impression in case their testimony goes south for any reason.
Specifically, Gates testified he and Manafort had maintained 15 unreported foreign accounts, and he said Manafort told him to report money wired from the accounts as loans rather than income to reduce Manafort's taxable income.
Gates also explained that he stole “several hundred thousand” dollars from his boss by padding his own expense reports and that he had committed bank and tax fraud on his own behalf as well.
Gates said as he worked for Manafort over the years, his duties increased, but he still considered himself merely “an employee of the firm,” and he believed Manafort thought of him the same way. The two did not socialize outside of work, Gates said.
Prosecutors didn't complete their questioning of Gates Monday and he is expected to return to the stand Tuesday. Nonetheless, the trial continues at a speedy pace and prosecutors have said they may even finish presenting the bulk of their case by the end of the week.
Gates faces five years in prison as a part of his plea deal, but a judge could reduce the sentence depending on how valuable his testimony proves to be to the special counsel’s case. Gates’s plea deal will also be voided if he lies on the stand at any time.
On Tuesday, expect to see the defense try to destroy Gates on the stand—it’s pretty close to their only play at this point. The fact that he embezzled money from Manafort gives them an opening to make the case that Gates acted independently and the jury can’t trust his testimony regarding Manafort.
Whatever happens with Gates related to the Manafort trials in Alexandria now and in D.C. next month, he will also play a critical role in the special counsel’s overall investigation. Remember, not only was he Trump’s deputy campaign manager, he continued on after Manafort left the campaign and then went on to serve on Trump’s transition team.