Tag: Rick Gates

Trump suggested naming his daughter Ivanka as his running mate in 2016, according to new book by Rick Gates

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As Donald Trump’s top campaign aides began a discussion in June 2016 about who the presumptive Republican presidential nominee should select as his running mate, the candidate piped up with an idea.

“I think it should be Ivanka. What about Ivanka as my VP?” Trump asked the assembled group, according to a new book by his former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates set to be published Oct. 13.

Trump added: “She’s bright, she’s smart, she’s beautiful, and the people would love her!” Continue reading.

Rick Gates was offered cash to stonewall Mueller probe: prosecutors

AlterNet logoProsecutors recommended no prison time for former Trump deputy campaign chief Rick Gates after he resisted pressure and even a cash offer to stonewall investigators and provided “extraordinary assistance” in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Prosecutors said in a court filing that they will not oppose Gates’ request to be sentenced to probation after he pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy, lying to federal investigators and other charges.

Gates cooperated with Mueller’s team after the plea and testified at the trials of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, who were both convicted of numerous charges, as well as attorney Greg Craig, who was acquitted. Prosecutors said this week that Gates is still assisting with “a number of different ongoing matters.”

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Roger Stone joins the remarkable universe of criminality surrounding President Trump

Washington Post logoOn Friday, President Trump’s longtime political adviser Roger Stone was found guilty on seven criminal charges related to testimony he gave to Congress as part of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Those charges included five counts of offering false statements, one of obstruction and one of witness tampering. Stone is scheduled to be sentenced early next year.

Stone was with Trump at the very beginning of the president’s time in politics. In fact, Stone long pushed Trump to enter into the political world, encouraging him repeatedly to announce presidential bids in previous cycles. He was sidelined during Trump’s 2016 run after either quitting or being fired; as with many things related to Stone, details are murky.

Friday’s convictions seem to bring to an end the high-profile criminal probes stemming from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The convictions also contribute to a truly remarkable universe of admitted, proved or alleged criminal behavior involving people linked to Trump.

View the complete November 15 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.

Roger Stone trial: Former top Trump official details campaign’s dealings on WikiLeaks, and suggests Trump was in the know

Washington Post logoRoger Stone was the linchpin of a months-long effort by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to discover damaging information on Hillary Clinton to be released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, an effort that began before the hack of Democratic emails was publicly known, Stone’s trial has shown.

Testimony over four days ending Tuesday also revealed engagement by Trump and top aides in making use of Stone’s claims that he knew emails detrimental to Clinton’s campaign would be released.

The trial in federal court in Washington turns on accusations that Stone lied to Congress about his attempts to learn more about what WikiLeaks would publish and when it would do so. But some testimony also raises questions about the president’s written assertions under oath that he did not recall being aware of communications between Stone and WikiLeaks or recall any conversations about WikiLeaks between Stone and members of his campaign.

View the complete November 12 article by Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

Ex-Trump campaign official testifies Stone gave updates on WikiLeaks email dumps

The Hill logoPresident Trump‘s former deputy campaign manager told a jury on Tuesday that Roger Stone was giving the campaign updates on WikiLeaks’s plans to release damaging emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s campaign chairman.

Richard Gates, who is facing up to ten years in prison under a plea agreement for various fraud charges, testified in Stone’s criminal trial on Tuesday, saying that the longtime Trump associate was telling the campaign about WikiLeaks’s plans as early as April 2016, months before the DNC had announced it was hacked.

It had not been previously known that Stone was updating the campaign about WikiLeaks that early.

View the complete November 12 article by Harper Neidig on The Hill website here.

House panel subpoenas Flynn, Gates

The House Intelligence Committee has issued subpoenas for documents and testimony from former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Richard Gates.

“As part of our oversight work, the House Intelligence Committee is continuing to examine the deep counterintelligence concerns raised in Special Counsel Mueller’s report, and that requires speaking directly with the fact witnesses,” the committee’s chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), said in a statement on Thursday.

Schiff noted that both Flynn and Gates cooperated extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but said that they have so far “refused to cooperate fully with Congress.”

View the complete June 13 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Mueller focus shifts to Rick Gates

The focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is about to shift to Richard Gates.

Gates, Paul Manafort’s ex-business partner and President Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, has been quietly cooperating with federal prosecutors for over a year on Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

He’s also a cooperating witness to other undisclosed federal probes.

View the complete March 14 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Rick Gates Sought Online Manipulation Plans From Israeli Intelligence Firm for Trump Campaign

Rick Gates, a top Trump campaign aide, expressed interest in an Israeli company’s proposal for a social media manipulation effort in 2016, documents and interviews show. Credit: Damon Winter, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals.

The Trump campaign’s interest in the work began as Russians were escalating their effort to aid Donald J. Trump. Though the Israeli company’s pitches were narrower than Moscow’s interference campaign and appear unconnected, the documents show that a senior Trump aide saw the promise of a disruption effort to swing voters in Mr. Trump’s favor.

The campaign official, Rick Gates, sought one proposal to use bogus personas to target and sway 5,000 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention by attacking Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Mr. Trump’s main opponent at the time. Another proposal describes opposition research and “complementary intelligence activities” about Mrs. Clinton and people close to her, according to copies of the proposals obtained by The New York Times and interviews with four people involved in creating the documents.

View the complete October 8 article by Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, David D. Kirkpatrick and Maggie Haberman on the New York Times website here.

3 Takeaways From Day 8 of the Paul Manafort Trial

The following article by Griffin Connolly was posted on the Roll Call website August 9, 2018:

Who lied on a bank loan application? Was it Manafort, Gates or both?

A protester on July 31 outside the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., where Paul Manafort is standing trial. Credit: Sarah Silbiger, CQ Roll Call)

Day Eight of the Paul Manafort trial brought special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s prosecution team closer to the finish line of its case against the former Trump campaign chairman.

Prosecutors zeroed in on the loan fraud charges against Manafort, who faces 18 total counts of tax evasion and bank fraud and a maximum 305-year prison sentence if the Eastern Virginia jury finds him guilty.

Citizens Bank mortgage loan assistant Melinda James testified about her communications with Manafort and Rick Gates, the political consulting titan’s longtime deputy, regarding a loan application that contained falsified information to increase Manafort’s chances of getting the request approved.

View the complete article here.

3 Takeaways from Day 6 of the Manafort Trial

The following article by Griffin Connolly was posted on the Roll Call website August 7, 2018:

Day 6 of Paul Manafort’s tax evasion and bank fraud trial featured testimony from longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates. Credit: Zach Gibson, Getty Images

Day Six of the Paul Manafort trial is in the books.

It’s a day that featured testimony from just one witness, Rick Gates, Manafort’s longtime deputy, who finished his direct questioning from prosecutors and underwent a grueling cross-examination from lead defense attorney Kevin Downing.

Gates pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of lying to an FBI agent in exchange for testifying against his former boss.

View the complete article here.