In sentencing Gates, Jackson said she struggled to balance his crimes with the vital “evidence about matters of grave and international importance” he offered federal prosecutors. “Gates was hardly a minor player,” Jackson saidThe lobbying work Gates and Manafort did for that money, she added, involved “lying to members of Congress and lying to the American public” about their Ukrainian clients. Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston called Gates’s cooperation “extraordinary,” especially with respect to Manafort’s trial. Gates's original plea deal called for a possible five- or six-year prison term, but federal prosecutors in court filings last week said they would not oppose his attorney’s request for no prison time. Gates was in court as a witness in August assisting Mueller’s spinoff probe of Washington lobbyists and the foreign influence industry.

Source: Washington Post December 17, 2019 11:01 UTC