we didn't know why they suddenly wanted to withdraw from representing rick gates. there has since been a lot of confusion and conflicting reporting about gates' legal representation. the court is stewing over this request from his lawyers for three weeks since they first said they wanted to quit him. now it all seems clear that the reason all of his lawyers sought to get rid of him, sought to withdraw from his case that day february 1st is because that day, february 1st he told a lie to the fbi and it is an ethical imperative in some cases in the legal profession to withdraw if you're representing a client who is lying and you can't do anything about it. it's also a terrible thing to do. i mean, i'm not talking ethically or because what it says about you as a person that you lie. i mean, it's a terrible thing to do strategically for your own criminal case. if you're in the middle of a plea negotiations with prosecutors and fbi agents and tell them something that is provably false in the middle of the plea negotiations, at that point they push back from the table and

he said, quote, rick gates was in a position to observe the inner workings at a senior level. and gates could prove a key source of information on these and other issues. joining us now is the top democratic on the intelligence committee, congressman adam schiff. thank you for being with us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> why do you think that gates could be a key source of information on the central matter at hand here? >> well, you have paul manafort who was the campaign chair for a period of time and cory lewandowski who was the trump campaign chair for a period of time. and rick gates also played a role in the transition and thereafter. so he's in a position to see the whole length and breadth of what was taking place during the campaign. he traveled on the presidential plane for a period of time. and he's obviously facing extraordinary liability. and i think one of the messages mueller was sending through the charge on the false statement and the other actions we've seen him take visa vi paul manafort is he's not going to tolerate any nonsense. the worst

rick gates is to plead guilty on conspiracy charges. how much damage can his testimony do to the president? we'll take a look when we come back. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a medication, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further irreversible damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatiti

let's say he does what rick gates has done. plead guilty, cooperate and hope for a light sentence. >> manafort has a problem now because he doesn't have anything to give up. that's why it benefits the people had decide too cooperate early. it is always better in terms of sentencing to plead guilty and admit your misconduct and then go into sentencing. even if you don't have people to give up. the conspiracy charge continued throughout the time that they were working on the campaign. they were also engaged in a criminal conspiracy. what we want to know is was anyone else involved. not just the one coming out of all their money. >> i assume that they suspect that are manafort might know something about an individual or sprids have not been charged. >> certainly. and that is why they're leaning on him and why they keep piling on all these charges. when rick gates comes out with this ridiculous self-serving statement, the reason he pleaded guilty is because he's a criminal. he's guilty. that's the only reason a judge will accept a

rick gates and paul manafort seem by the indictment to have been inseparable over the course of the allegationset forth in the indictment. if gates can say, "this is what manafort and i did together," then they have a harder time saying it was a mistake or accident or unintentional behavior in some respect that might form the basis of manafort's defense. with respect to the president, it is not clear whether he has anything to say about that. >> let me ask you, swinn, about what kind of response we can anticipate from the white house. do you think they will respond tonight? >> well, perhaps not tonight. in terms of what response we might expect from the president, i think the best response we can hope for or the most likely response from president trump is for another sweet or at public statement distancing himself from rick gates and saying, i don't even know who he was. now, it is true that rick gates played a fairly senior role on the trump campaign and did work on the inauguration, and then went on to work for tom barrick for a little while as his right-hand man. barrick is one of the presi

so serious penalties for rick gates. but far less than had there been a case proceeding forward on all of those allegations and had there been a guilty result. so by cooperating it gives the special counsel a window into the inner workings of the trump campaign during the summer of 2016, a critical period of time, those few months where paul manafort was the campaign chairman, leading into the convention and there was a lot of happening and then some of the allegations against -- manafort have to do with the financial life and new charges that were brought against paul manafort related to mortgages that have come -- about in just the last several months. so much of what is alleged against manafort is dealing with almost his business history and his financial dealings, but by getting gates to cooperate, there is an opportunity to compel him to speak truthfully to prosecutors about what he saw and what he knew and what he had access to. we don't know what that will produce. but this is certainly an important event for the

here's rick gates today walking out of federal court. he's not some coffee boy, volunteer or unpaid intern. he was the deputy campaign manager at one point. unlike paul manafort who resigned after a few months, gates remained with the campaign until election day, he was on the transition team and inaugural committee. and once trump took office rick gates formed an allied group to help support the president's agenda and he was a regular at the white house. he could supply valuable information about the inner workings on the trump operation. according to a document, rick gates conspired to lie to the united states regarding money he and paul manafort earned while working for a political party in ukraine. work they did without registering as foreign agents per the law. he also lied in an interview this month about a 2013 meeting between paul manafort, a congressman, dana rohrabacher. both men were hit with a 32-count indictment in virginia on thursday. the "new york times" notes the plea deal could be a significant development in the investi

, and here is rick gates leaving court right now. let's see if -- >> not making any statement. >> i imagine that is not a reporter yelling quadruple-doub blood money. i thought he had left the courtroom but that was a live look at him leaving the courtroom. again here is paul manafort's statement. i continue to maintain my innocence, i had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. for reasons yet to surface, he chose to do otherwise. this does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me. i was speaking to somebody in the trump world a little bit earlier today, nick, who said if anyone was going to fold, and then switch and cooperate with mueller, it would be rick gates. that the pressure would be too much on him. rick gates is a father of a young kid and been asking his -- reporters have been reporting to be able to coach his son's soccer games. be able to leave his house to do that. when

former governor rick gates expects to plead guilty today. rick gates fully cooperate in the investigation now? clearly this has implications for paul manafort, the

no one knows more about paul manafort than rick gates if the rick gates pleads guilty, the pressure on paul manafort to plead guilty increases dramatically. the pressure on everyone increases dramatically if rick gates pleads guilty. and that's why a month from now we will still be talking about rick gates long after the memos will most likely be forgotten. joining us now jill wine-banks, matt miller, and ron klain. he's also the former chief counsel to the senate judiciary committee. jill, first of all, i want to get your reaction as a trial lawyer, prosecutor, to this switching of lawyers by rick gates at this stage of the proceedings and the reporting we have that the new lawyers have been seen spending some extended period of time in the special prosecutor's office. >> sure. bu before i do. i have to say listening to your wonderful opening i was thinking you said everything that needs matt miller, and ron klain. he's also the former chief counsel to the senate judiciary committee. jill, first of all, i want to get your reaction as a trial lawyer, prosecutor, to this switching of la

but the charges rick gates is facing appear to be related to his relationship with paul manafort and they were doing in the ukraine. rick saying he took the deal because he was looking at a long and expensive court process. he said initially he wanted to defend himself but then

and that rick gates is important also because rick gates was in the campaign and then served. and so i think he bridges a lot of time periods that they're interested in. and you'll notice in the indictments, and you know this better than i, rick gates has always been described as kind of an accomplice, if you will, as the sidekick to manafort. he was clearly directed by paul manafort in things that he did. so it very clear that he was involved at every level but has intricate knowledge of what occurred. >> you're right to say that manafort was laundering tens of millions of dollars and gates was laundering single figures, single millions of dollars in money. so there is a difference between the two, but they were both together in what is clearly a conspiracy to defraud the united states government. that has been charged. that's count 1, and he can walk everybody through that if manafort goes to trial. >> the second charge is perjury. >> the second count is a false statement, correct. interestingly, back at a 2013 meeting between a lobbyist and a congressional member and manafo

the big question, who or what is rick gates ready to give up? president trump's former deputy campaign manager has cut a deal with the special prosecutor or the special counsel, robert mueller. gates here leaving federal court just moments ago. he pleaded guilty to conspiring against the united states of america and guilty to lying to the feds. part of robert mueller's investigation into russian's meddling or election meddling and possible collusion with team trump. the president has said there was no collusion. president trump has not yet commented on the gates deal. the attention now turning to gates long-time associate and the co-defendant in this case, the former trump campaign manager, paul manafort. both men facing money laundering charges and conspiracy charges. yesterday, a federal grand jury slapped them with another round including tax evasion and bank fraud. this new indictment includes references to conspirators. people accused of helping manafort and gates. it doesn't name any of them. robert mueller's team has already gotten guilty

rick gates, a top official in the trump presidential campaign. while gates is agrees to cooperate with mueller's investigation, manafort is vowing to fight. including new charges filed against him. our correspondents and analysts are standing by. >>>let get details of the breaking news with cnn's political correspondent sara murray. sara, critical developments emerging now in the special prosecutor's investigation. >> reporter: that's right. five new criminal charges against paul manafort alleging he paid former european politicians to push pro-ukraine positions. mueller is hoping to pressure more trump campaign officials into cooperating. tonight, another guilty plea for special counsel robert mueller. former trump campaign adviser rick gates pleading guilty today to two criminal charges. gates pleaded guilty in d.c. federal court today to conspiracy to defraud the u.s. and making false statements, according to court filings. telling friends and family in a letter that the last several months have been excruciating. gates is cooperating with the

what criminal information could we expect from rick gates?nt, there has been nothing found that suggest collusion and nothing found -- if you are in silicon valley, the indictment from last week, you talked to tech lobbyists inside the beltway, they are worried about how to better protect themselves into 2018 midterms and the rumblings on capitol hill about potential new regulatory reforms and disclosure for the tech companies. as of now, that has been the focus on the tech industry and with the business apparatus surrounding paul manafort. fyi, the hearing is at 2:00 p.m. in washington, the hearing at 2:00 p.m. liedt mueller saying gates to the united states on february 1 about the 2013 meeting and lied about ukraine discussions and the 2013 meeting with lobbyists -- a congress member and paul manafort. information that i do not think we knew. interesting to see which congress member and which theyists those are here hearing at 2:00 p.m. eastern. a guilty plea should come then come a correct -- should come then, correct? kevin: it could. the

but first let's listen to the president talking about rick gates. >> come on up, rick. so we have a great group of people. and we have a group of people that really wants to win and i think knows how to win. and we've also been winning all our lives. this group of people in front of me, i know so many of you, we've been winning all our lives. >> we just saw rick gates taking his position there behind donald trump. if he becomes a guilty plea and he's cooperating with the special prosecutor, life just got a lot harder for donald trump. >> that's rights, lawrence. i will say two quick things about bannon first. ron said he sang a long song. he doesn't know any short songs. he's not a beetles guy he does "stairway to heaven'. he mueller is the person who can put him in jail, the house intelligence committee cannot, he think it is house intelligence committee is a bunch of clouns, he's not going to play with them. he's going to play with mueller. so rick gates, you have the corey lewandowski era, the paul manafort era and the bannon era. there are not that many people who s

i'm not going to do what rick gates did. i'm standing by you. >> chuck rosenberg, i saw this alleged scheme referred to as byzantine when you look at what they were alleged to be up to. it's thorny. it's windy. what did you learn they've been doing at their firm over many years? >> fraud. it's a gold medal fraud scheme. i have to tell you, while it's a difficult case to investigate, it's not that hard of a case to prosecute. when you read the indictments, and i'm sure that the prosecutors went over every word ten times before they put that in front of a grand jury, that's not a tough case to prove. so, putting aside mr. manafort's statement which i think is unseemly at best, mr. gates made a very rational choice. almost all defendants are convict convicted either at trial or by guilty plea. he's simply cutting his losses, a very rational choice. >> these two men were living large, i think it's fair to say paul manafort than rick gates. look at the car purchases, landscaping fees, alleged money laundering here. how are they d

he is now representing rick gates. he put out a statement saying i am rick gaethjes' lawyer. the daily beast is standing by it, reporting, i think this shows even jumping into three different lawyers whether or not it's a fourth, rick gates is not in this boltd maybe stable six as paul manafort. paul manafort's representation as you just read states he is innocent. these money laundering charges, they tried to talk us out of this, this summer. i'm not wreaked it verbatim. >> he's reporting about the exact smr there is no way you request use real estate in that way. here it is him rick gates, going into this, he felt as a deputy, he wouldn't have to have the same exposure as his boss paul manafort. so he might not have ramped up his legal representation in time. he sort of changed his tune. a week ago, we're hearing, he had the third lawyer, he was now going to cooperate and perhaps plead guilty and flip on manafort and change the whole thing. today this changes the narrative. what we see is a man who is perhaps kind of stuck in a really tough place. what i'm hearing is he mig

the charges were announced just hours after rick gates was spotted leaving this d.c. federal courthouse, wi. with this long list of new charges, it appeals any plea deal from gates may have fallen apart. cnn reported that gates has been in plea negotiations with the special counsel's team for the past month. and if he pleads guilty, he could testify against paul manafort. >> i think these lawyers are putting so much pressure on these guys, with so many high stakes that the ultimate decision is going to be, i've got to protect myself and my family, and they're going to cooperate. >> reporter: in addition to tonight's new charges, "the wall street journal" reports mueller's team and federal prosecutors in new york are also examining up to $16 million in loans to manafort, from federal savings bank, a bank run by a former campaign adviser to president trump, steve koch. the special counsel is reportedly looking at whether the loans were made as part of a quid pro quo. manafort got the loans and steve koch was promised a job in the trump administration. while new york pros

he will get not only manafort out ofhis but talk to rick gates about the campaign that trump organized as well as transition and little bit of the white house because gates did have contact with the white house while they were or after donald trump took office. he is going to be grilling him. if i were a lawyer for the president, i would not be happy whatsoever. and if i were the president, i wouldn't be happy. that explains his tweet storm this morning or it could very well explain his tweet storm this morning because he is getting briefed by rod rosenstein on some of the things that happened in the investigation. he found out about the indictment of the 13 russians before the rest of the world did. i think he is now becoming more spooked and more agitated as this circle closes smaller and smaller and rick gates because he was a central figure in the trump campaign is in a position to know any wrongdoing occurred. >> between the indictment that came out on friday with 13 russians indicted and news from the "l.a. times," not a good weekend for the white house. an good weekend for the a

co-conspirators at various banks and left-handing institutions, people who allegedly worked with rick gates and paul manafort on money laundering and bank fraud schemes. somewhere out there there's a person who recognizes this e-mail, who knows that he or she once sent an e-mail to gates and manafort when they were allegedly cooking up these fake documents to get manafort one of these multi-million dollar loans. somebody somebody snows this was their e-mail. quote, looks doctored. can't someone just do a clean excel doc and pdf to me? whoever that prn erson is nows t reform's consider him to be a conspirator working at lender b and that robert mueller has that exact e-mail. we know the trouble that rick gates is in and how it's changing as he pled guilty. and we know the trouble that paul manafort is in. but there are clearly other people known to mule are and his investigators and whose identities are known to the prosecutors but have not been made known to the public. that brings us to the issue of the federal savings bank, which is called lender d in the pending indictment against paul m

people who worked with rick gates and paul manafort on money laundering and bank fraud schemes. somewhere out there there's a person who recognizes this e-mail. who knows he or she once sent an e-mail to gates and manafort when they allegedly cooked up the fake documents to get a multimillion dollar loan. somebody somewhere knows this was their e-mail. quote, looks doctored. can't someone just do a clean excel doc and pdf to me? somebody recognizes that as their own work. whoever that person is knows robert mueller's prosecutors consider him or her to be a conspirator and robert mueller has that exact e-mail. so we know the trouble that rick gates is in and how that is changing now that he's pled guilty. we know the trouble paul manafort is in with these pending felonies against him. there are other people, other conspirators clearly known to mueller and his investigators whose identities at this point are known to the prosecutors but they have not been made known to the public. and that brings us to the issue of the federal savings bank which is called lender d in the pending in

, in particular, attorneys for rick gates in particular, and special counsel have clearly now fallen apart. this means there's no deal, and the special counsel has now gone ahead and brought 32 charges against paul manafort and rick gates. we expected the charges would be coming against paul in particular, but what we didn't know is whether or not rick gates would be included in the charges, wolf, because we knew there were talks going on between rick gates and attorneys representing him, and the special counsel where a possible plea agreement in the wait in here. what this indicates is there's no deal, and these two men are now preparing to go to trial, perhaps, later this year. these charges have to do mostly with fraudulent loans according to the special counsel, taken after 2015 and up through this year, which allegedly, according to the special counsel, used to cover for home renovations and other things that were not to be paid for by these loans. >> 32 koicounts is a lot. >> it is a lot. paul manafort is 72 years old. based on this case, if convic d edded ed, he's dying in pri

as to rick gates, he's pleading guilty to two counts. one of them has to do with the overall investigation, fraud charges, tax charges. you have that. the second one, i think, is the most interesting charge, the making of false statements to the special counsel and that has to do with when he appeared before the special counsel and during that time he was discussing potential cooperation agreement and what they call a proffer in where he has to tell them crimes he has committed perhaps other crimes and be an open book about everything he knows. according to the charging documents he's going to plead guilty to, it says he lied to the special counsel about his knowledge concerning a meeting that ball manafort had with a congre congressman in 2013 where there has questions about ukraine. when asked about that 2013 meeting according to these documents, rick gates lied about it. it's not clear why he lied about it. that is one of the charges he is pleading guilty to. it's interesting that they have reached far back, the fbi, the special couns

we've been focusing a lot on rick gates who also perhaps may cooperate.ther piece that could perhaps cause paul manafort to cooperate. it seems that this is more towards a building block to get to paul manafort. >> shimon, jeffrey, mary katherine, caitlin huey-burns, thank you. >>> in the meantime, survivors turned activists. bus loads of students in florida heading to capitol hill to rally for gun control. we're there live. if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. this condition has not been reported

i don't know if the rick gates will come up. it is attached to the white house because it is part of the broader mueller investigation. but the charges rick gates is facing appear to be related to his relationship with paul manafort and the business they were doing in the ukraine. rick saying he took the deal because he was looking at a long and expensive court process. he said initially he wanted to defend himself but then when he looked at the amount of time he would have to invest, the amount of money it was going to cost him and the toll, frankly, that it would take on him and his family, he decided to take the plea deal. plea deals typically are struck to do this, but he would cooperate with the special counsel's office, potentially testifying against paul manafort. the white house today through mercedes schlapp saying rick gates issue has nothing to do with the white house. listen here. >> i just, i don't know how many times i have to say this. there's no evidence of collusion. as we continue to be cooperative with special

george papadopoulos, michael flynn, rick gates. the campaign, the white house tried to dismiss papadopoulos as a coffee boy. put that aside. you can answer that question for yourself at home. flynn and gates were not. you concerned, jack? >> i'm not concerned. i think if after all this time if there was collusion that certainly bob mueller would have put his finger on it. when you think about the progressive group think of the left that has always been saying, oh, collusion, collusion, collusion, if that was the case, certainly baseball mueller would be covered up with -- bob mueller would be covered up with it by now. >> the investigation isn't over. >> it's not over, but this was 2006. this was decades' old stuff. not all of it that far, but this had nothing to do with the trump campaign. i'll tell you something that all of us as americans should be sad and worried about -- here's a man with four kids who in october pled not guilty. realizing the financial burdens he had no choice but to change and say, okay, i'm guilty. that's pr

rick gates? paul manafort? someone else? low level figure, even though it does send this major message to all the other figures who might be involved, including the president of the united states. of course we know there's some nervousness about talking to bob mueller. so yeah. that's the thing. we have this series of disclosures from robert mueller on friday, the 13 indictments is that then the surprising guilty plea here today. so this is in a town that likes to leak, robert mueller isn't among those. >> you should know better than to lie. he should know better but clearly he did not. it is also interest that van der zwaan's wife is the wife of a very prominent russian oligarch who was named just the other day. a russian billionaire. what if any red flags does that raise to you? >> just another remind per they have ties to the kremlin, of course. this charge that he lied about a client, a former client. you go back to the point, you see the scope of this investigation. this all happened prior to trump announcing that he wa

there's no sign of a new guilty plea from rick gates. now there is new drama about who gates' lawyers are now. we'll talk about that in a minute. we're not sure how that relates here. but there's a couple other specifics to know. in the first indictment, the one back in october, there were no charges of tax fraud against manafort and gates. and that was interesting, especially to those of us who are lay observers because in that indictment in october there was a ton of description of tax fraud but to charges so that led people to ask back in october hey, if mueller has evidence about tax evasion by manafort and gates, where are the tax evasion charges? they're here. they didn't charge him in october but those tax charges are here now. they're in this one. and one more big question this new indictment raises. the foreshadowing we got from the court about what was going to come in this indictment came in two stages. first was friday night. on friday night paul manafort's team said they -- excuse me, mueller's team, sorry. m-people. on frida

errol, as lauren said there that the expectation is at least on the part of prosecutors is that rick gates will help to flip paul manafort. as "the new york times" points out, even after manafort left the campaign in 2016, gates stayed on, traveled on the trump plane through election day. he could offer a lot of insight about the campaign itself independent of what he knows about paul manafort. >> that's right. the thing to keep in mind in this kind of a complex investigation is that people are connecting dots on the mueller team that we don't necessarily know exist. that rick gates might not know really exist. in other words, timelines, dates, who was in the room, who spoke to whom, who had the e-mail correspondence on what topics and so forth. all of that is stuff to figure out what went on here you'd have to know. you have to ask everybody. you have to ask everybody from the security guards and the secretaries to the assistants like rick gates or the seemingly low-level so-called coffee boys like george papadopoulos. that's really what this investigation i think is most interestingly co

manafort's top aide, rick gates, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators, gates is now cooperating with the special counsel. manafort responded that he had hoped gates would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. president trump was not asked about the russia investigation. during his news conference with australia's prime minister. but did respond to the white house security clearance controversy. saying he would not overrule the chief of staff. on whether son-in-law jared kushner should keep access to secrets with only interim clearance. >> that will be up to general kelly. general kelly respects jared a lot and general kelly will make that call. >> in a raucous and free-wheeling speech before conservatives, earlier friday -- >> second amendment. >> the president talked gun policy. pushing for teachers with gun skills to carry weapons at school. even though an armed deputy at the florida high school did not confront the gunman. >> he decided not to go in. that was not his finest moment. that i can tell you. >> president trump says he will

. >> any concerns about rick gates? >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> cnn's sarah murray has the rest of the story. >> trump campaign adviser telling rick gates in a letter that the last several months had been excruciating. he pleaded guilty to two the criminal charges today. conspiracy to defraud the u.s. and making false statements. dwaits gates is cooperating with the investigation. his decision to flip on his long time business partner paul manafort who served as the trump campaign chairman ramps up the pressure. >> i think these lawyers are putting so much pressure on these guys with so many high stakes that the ultimate decision will be, i've got to protect myself and my zpam they'll cooperate. >> both gates and manafort pleaded not guilty to financial charges unrelated to the campaign. in the charges, gates has pleaded to, prosecutors show how they hid millions of dollars from their ukrainian lobbying work from the federal government and then lied to federal investigators in 2016 about the scheme. investi

trump aid rick gates pleading guilty to lying to mueller's investigators on february 1, 2018. just three weeks ago and it's months after mueller had charged gates. so that's sort of funny, right? here's a new crime that gates committed, he admits that after mueller charged him. typically your lawyer won't even let you talk to prosecutors after you get charged, but this came during gates' attempt to cut a deal with mueller, during what's called a proffer meeting, where defendants tell what they know during a queen for a day interview. >> in a queen for a day interview, a defendant can typically admit to crimes with little additional consequences, unless he or she lies. >> rachel says it perfectly there, you can admit to any and all of your past crimes without lying in order to show the goods you might have on other people and prosecutors agree not to pi punish you, but you cannot do what rick gates did, lying in the proffer session with his counsel at mueller's office. so he went in for leniency about one crime and ended up committing another. the review, gates gets busted with

rick gates who was first indicted on fraud charges last fall pleaded guilty today. you see him walking to court, to two counts of con piracy against the u.s. and lying to investigators. gates wasn't just paul manafort's deputy. after working on the trump campaign, he held a top post on the trump inaugural committee and went on to cofound an outside non-profit promoting president trump's agenda. later working directly for the president's long-time friend investor tom barrack. he is now the third member of the president's campaign to plead guilty to a federal crime and joins george papadopoulos who advised the campaign on foreign policy and michael flynn whom the president chose to be his single most important and powerful national security adviser at the white house, a job in which he lasted 24 days. three of the president's associates are felons. criminals. as part of his plea deal, gates agreed to cooperate with robert mueller whose team told the court they might let gates avoid prison time if they're satisfied with what he shares. and that is likely not very good n

zwaan connected to president trump's former campaign manager paul manafort and long-time deputy rick gates. he's the latest to get sucked into the quick sand of the russia investigation. adding to the drama is a reference to a mysterious person "a." >> this comes shortly after reports that gates, who served as deputy campaign manager and later as a white house adviser, started proceedings to separate with his lawyers. >> joining us now, nbc news investigator reporter tom winter and special report and msnbc contributor jill wine-banks. tom, you first. what does this invitemedictment us? though this is a new name, this guy is a former skadden arps lawyer. one of the biggest, prestigious firms out there. his father is tied to putin. it's a little darker than an ex-white glove attorney. >> on friday, there was criminal information filed with the court. basically, this is mueller's team saying, hey, we've got the information about this guy. we want you, the court, to be aware. we'd like to schedule a plea hearing. basically, there's two things he's -- they've accused him of here that he's appar

so there's this new, very famous new white collared defense lawyer apparently working on rick gates' behalf, apparently negotiating something about gates' case at mueller's offices in d.c., but he has never been announced as one of gates' lawyers. his name doesn't show up anywhere, listing him as one of gates' lawyers. in court so far, gates has had a whole other legal team that was representing him. what about them? well, tonight, all of those lawyers for rick gates just quit. in a very short court filing, three lawyers for trump deputy campaign manager, rick gates, who have been representing him in court all along since he has been charged, all three of them announced that they are withdrawing from representing him. why are they withdrawing from representing rick gates? quote, for the reasons set forth in exhibit 1, which is the subject of a motion to be filed under seal. we're not allowed to know why they're withdrawing. sealed. in the movie, this is one of the exciting parts. so we are waiting for the other shoe to drop on that. meanwhile, i should tell you tonight we've got our o

i'll come back to rick gates in a second. sara murray reporting that the president is now saying he would still like to sit down with investigators from special counsel robert mueller's team. he thinks he can handle it. he thinks he can work this is the exact quote sara murray was told, this after cnn was told by lawyers and people close to the president they were afraid of the president sitting down with investigators because they were fearful he could get caught lying. what do you make of the president at least suggesting publicly he be willing to testify? >> well, john, i'm skill ste skeptical there's going to be an interview. there's a good cop, bad cop routine going on. the president has been in his public statements acting as if this is no big deal, open book. let's answer the questions, i've got nothing to hide. that plays really well politically, particularly with his base. i have no doubt behind the scenes his lawyers are driving a very hard bargain with mueller over the terms of the interview, probably a bargain tha

times," rick gates could spend 18 months in prison. let me give you context here, for the charges he was facing, gates could have faced upwards of ten years in prison. this is someone who has four young children, a young family who is facing financial pressure. it would have been very expen expensive to go to trial, but he's facing personal pressure from his loved ones to wrap this up quickly. in terms of the investigation, this could potentially be a big deal in the russian probe. the fact that gates is willing to testify against paul manafort, that obviously is a coup for bob mueller. but it could also mean putting additional pressure on manafort to cooperate with this investigation. so rick gates cooperating could be a building block for bob mueller for something bigger, potentially for charges against president donald trump or against one of donald trump's other associates. we reported on friday that it was nearing a plea deal but he was not finished. he was cooperating with bob mueller. at that time, the white house downplayed the

i suppose -- rick gates.fact that he has now reached a plea agreement, which means he will get a shorterjail sentence, but he has also agreed to co—operate in all and any matters associated with the rush of investigation and that's what so crucial about it because he was a pa rt crucial about it because he was a part of the donald trump election campaign in 2016, with his long—term colleague paul manna fought. there we re colleague paul manna fought. there were both there at the republican convention that year and both involved in organising that campaign, they were in crucial meetings —— paul manafort. so what information does he have that could incriminate former colleagues and could shed light on whether there was any collusion between the trump campaign and - russians. this campaign and the russians. this isn't just about potential campaign and the russians. this isn'tjust about potential meddling between russia... at least meddling that would affect the election campaign. 13 russians last year were indic

a source familiar with the proceedings telling us that former trump campaign aide rick gates is expected to plead guilty today, an indication gates is cooperating with the special counsel. this comes a day after robert mueller filed a 32-count indictment against both gates and former trump campaign chairman paul manafort, charging both men with additional crimes, with committing tax fraud, bank fraud and allegedly laundering $30 million. all this while president trump today has been giving a 90-minute off-script red meat speech to the annual conservative political action committee, a speech focused only partly on guns and his alliance with the nra, and more in tune with a campaign rally than a presidential address. joining me now, nbc's intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian, msnbc political analyst peter baker, chief white house correspondent at the "new york times," msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official and msnbc political analyst josh ernest, former obama press secretary and matthew miller, former chief spokesman for the just

he is accused of lying about talks with rick gates.nd paul manafort have been charged with money laundering, tax evasion and foreign lobbying in connection with their russia-connected clients. there are reports gates is prepared to take a plea deal. van der zwaan is expected to plead guilty at a 2:30 court appearance. nearly 20 interviews have been charged as a result of the ongoing mueller investigation. nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian is following this story. ken, can you just give us a little bit of context here, who is -- i mean, this is yet another person that we have never heard of who clearly is playing potentially a key role in what is a drama that could reach to the oval office. >> van der zwaan is a young dutch lawyer with a major american law firm. he's poised to plead guilty to a single count of making false statements to robert mueller's investigators. the statements had to do with his work for his law firm about a report involving a ukrainian politician that was commissioned by paul manaf

alex van der zwaan, a london-based attorney with ties to paul manafort and top campaign official rick gates pleaded guilty to giving false statements to the special counsel's investigators about his communications with gates two months before the election. though it's unclear with what the distwo discussed, his plea may prove helpful to mueller's claim. >> in this case, manafort had a relationship with the ukrainian government and this lawyer was doing work for the ukrainian government. so let's the link and he'll try to turn this witness against gates, against manafort and possibly against others. >> van der zwaan was part of a team of attorneys at the prominent international law firm that drafted a report commissioned by manafort in 2012. the report was used by allies of the then pro-russian ukrainian president viktor yanukovych to justify jailing a political opponent. paul manafort was indicted in october in connection with his lobbying work for the ukrainian government and alleged money laundering. manafort has pleaded not guilty. van der zwaan is also the son-in-law of a prominent russ