Russia-link Trump campaign aide Rick Gates jailed for 45 days

President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates has been sentenced to 45 days in jail.

‘I accept complete responsibility for my actions’: Rick Gates leaves the federal court in Washington on Wednesday. Picture: AP.

President Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said on Wednesday that while she was moved by his extensive co-operation with prosecutors, she still felt some punishment was in order.

She said she had struggled for some time with how to sentence Gates, who met investigators more than 50 times and helped the government secure convictions of ­Republican operatives Paul Manafort and Roger Stone after he pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and conspiring against the US.

Judge Jackson said that every day she saw people who committed crimes “of a much more limited scope” than Gates’s offences who are motivated by drug addictions and poverty and who then, like him, become government witnesses by turning on their own friends and neighbours.

“Even they often serve some time,” Judge Jackson noted.

Gates, who held senior posts on the President’s campaign team and inauguration committee, was one of several former Trump aides and advisers to be charged in Mr Mueller’s investigation that documented Russian interference in the 2016 US election and the fourth to receive at least some time behind bars because of the probe.

Gates, 47, initially pleaded not guilty but backtracked in February last year and agreed to co-operate with prosecutors.

Judge Jackson also said he would be required to pay a $US20,000 ($29,000) fine, complete community service and continue co-operating in several ongoing investigations.

“I wish to express to this court that I accept complete responsibility for my actions that have led me here,” Gates said before he was sentenced.

“I greatly regret the mistakes I have made and I have worked hard to honour my commitment to make amends. My family and I appreciate your consideration for leniency, and I hope and pray that you will give that to me.”

Under the sentencing guidelines calculated by the government, he could have faced up to five years in prison. The sentence is to be served intermittently during the three years of probation.

Reuters