Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates sentenced to 45 days in jail

A judge sentenced former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates to 45 days in prison Tuesday, nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Update 12 p.m. EST Dec. 17: U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Gates on Tuesday to 45 days in jail, The Associated Press reported.

Gates will also serve three years of probation, according to the National Law Journal.

Original report: A federal judge in Washington is set to sentence former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates on Tuesday morning, nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Gates, 47, pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to the FBI and conspiring against the United States to hide funds earned through lucrative political consulting work he did in Ukraine.

He's scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Washington for his sentencing in the case.

Sentencing guidelines recommend Gates serve 46 to 57 months in prison, according to The New York Times. However, prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson for leniency in Gates' case, citing his "extraordinary assistance" in the Mueller investigation, Reuters reported.

"Under exceedingly difficult circumstances and under intense public scrutiny, Gates has worked earnestly to provide the government with everything it has asked of him and has fulfilled all obligations under his plea agreement," prosecutors wrote last week in a sentencing memo obtained by Reuters.

Gates' attorneys asked last week that he be spared from jail time and sentenced instead to probation, the Times reported. Prosecutors have not opposed the request.

Gates testified in two major trials stemming from Mueller's investigation: the case against his former business partner and Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and the case against Trump confidant Roger Stone.

Gates is one of a half-dozen associates of President Donald Trump charged in Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. All six have either pleaded guilty or been found guilty at trial. The three who have already been sentenced have all received prison time. Two others, Stone and former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, are awaiting sentencing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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