YEAH, BUT AN FBI STAFFER ONCE TEXTED THAT HILLARY ISN'T SATAN...:

The breaking of Rick Gates represents a dramatic escalation of Mueller's probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. While the White House previously said it was unconcerned by the possibility that Gates would sing, the former campaign official was present at several critical junctures of the Trump-Russia affair. As deputy campaign chairman, Gates was on board during Don Jr.'s Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer, as well as for the campaign surrogates' meeting with Russian officials during the Republican National Convention, when the decision was made to change the language in the official Republican platform to make it more sympathetic to Russian interests. And he remained on the Trump team throughout the transition period, when Jared Kushner and other campaign officials made contact with Russians, including Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Vnesheconombank Chairman Sergey Gorkov.

While he previously pleaded not guilty, yesterday's indictment raised the stakes for Gates, who was reportedly struggling to pay his legal bills and concerned about the effect a drawn-out court battle would have on his family. In the new charges, Mueller accused Manafort and Gates of orchestrating a decade-long money-laundering scheme in which they allegedly lied on their income tax returns and committed bank fraud to secure loans. While they did not directly involve the Trump campaign, the fresh charges indicated that Mueller was ratcheting up the pressure on both Manafort and Gates to cooperate with the F.B.I. in the ongoing investigation--an effort that clearly paid off. Both former campaign aides faced de facto life sentences for the charges, according to Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. "This is pretty raw criminality," Cotter told The Washington Post. "According to the indictment, these are two fellows on a multi-year tear of lying to every bank they could find about their income. To a federal prosecutor, it's fairly crude. It's extensive and bold and greedy with a capital 'G,' but it's not all that sophisticated."

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