Mueller’s Rick Gates Filing May Lend A Clue About Today’s White House Turmoil
As reported in the Inquisitr this morning, President Trump unleashed a flurry of missives on his Twitter account attacking Robert Mueller and the Special Counsel’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. Those attacks continued unimpeded through the morning hours.
The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
….care how many lives the ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
Universities will someday study what highly conflicted (and NOT Senate approved) Bob Mueller and his gang of Democrat thugs have done to destroy people. Why is he protecting Crooked Hillary, Comey, McCabe, Lisa Page & her lover, Peter S, and all of his friends on the other side?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
The only “Collusion” is that of the Democrats with Russia and many others. Why didn’t the FBI take the Server from the DNC? They still don’t have it. Check out how biased Facebook, Google and Twitter are in favor of the Democrats. That’s the real Collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
While Mueller and his investigators have been notably silent during the investigation, the public is able to stay abreast of developments in the probe through Mueller’s court filings. The Mueller investigation has already made hundreds of criminal charges against dozens of people, and have already secured guilty pleas and cooperation from President Trump’s former campaign manager, former national security adviser, and several other former advisers. One of those advisers is Rick Gates, who was the deputy campaign chairman for President Trump in 2016 and was indicted along with Paul Manafort late last year.
As part of Gates’ plea deal, he is cooperating with the Mueller investigation in exchange for some leniency from the court. Gates’ sentencing is being held while his cooperation is being secured, and Mueller must make periodic reports to the court to update the status of Gates and other cooperating witnesses. In August, Mueller filed a report with the court to update the status of Gates.
Meanwhile, on a related note: The lawyers in Rick Gates' case in DC filed the latest status report. They're asking for another 90 days until the next update — he pleaded guilty, and agreed to postpone sentencing while he's cooperating with Mueller's office pic.twitter.com/3hEAWrP4qJ
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 10, 2018
In that August Joint Status Report, Mueller notes that Gates is cooperating in full with “the investigation.”
On Wednesday, Mueller filed the promised 90-day update on Gates.
NEW: Mueller's team says that Rick Gates continues to cooperate and they're not ready for him to be sentenced. Ask for another status report in January. pic.twitter.com/6Qw8kUFqH4
— Chad Day (@ChadSDay) November 14, 2018
At first glance, it seems that the only takeaway was that the Mueller investigation was likely to stretch into 2019, as he was asking the court for another 60 days to work with Gates. However, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow noticed a slight change. While the August report stated that Gates was cooperating with “the investigation,” the new report advises that Gates is cooperating in “several ongoing investigations.”
So 90 days ago the investigation Rick Gates was helping Mueller's team with was ongoing. "The investigation." Now, today, it's "several" investigations. pic.twitter.com/IHPsw6sh1s
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) November 15, 2018
The Mueller investigation was even more quiet than usual over the past couple of months, following standard protocol to not influence the midterm elections. However, the day after the midterms, with President Trump facing a new reality of a Democrat-controlled House and the threat of numerous investigations and obstruction, the president fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whittaker. The move was seen by critics as a transparent ploy to derail the Mueller investigation, as Whittaker has been a vocal critic of both Mueller and the probe itself and has suggested that the investigation be limited or shut down completely. There have been multiple calls for Whittaker to recuse himself from oversight of the investigation, as Sessions had before him.
It has been reported that Trump confidant Roger Stone is expecting an indictment from Mueller, while Donald Trump, Jr. has expressed concern that he will be indicted as well after being exposed by Gates’ testimony, according to Think Progress. According to a March filing by Mueller, Gates was “directly communicating” with a Russian intelligence official in the months before the 2016 election.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported on November 2 that they had discovered a secret waiver that President Trump had signed regarding Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who would oversee the Mueller investigation should Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein either resign or be fired by President Trump. Francisco has ties to the investigation due to his involvement in the law firm Jones Day, which is representing the Trump Presidential Campaign in the investigation. However, President Trump issued Francisco an ethics waiver in April that would allow him to oversee the Mueller investigation should Rosenstein leave the administration. With knowledge of President Trump’s machinations coming to light regarding Francisco just before the election, President Trump instead turned to Whittaker.
Mueller appears to be rapidly closing in on President Trump and his inner circle in what has apparently become multiple investigations, and the dominoes may be beginning to fall as the truth is unraveled.
