The real reason Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Rick Gates aren’t in prison yet
On Friday, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sent to jail. The reason was straightforward. He had been out on house arrest while awaiting his trial. But he was caught conspiring with a Russian government spy to try to tamper with the witnesses against him, and the judge decided this was enough of a reason to toss him in jail through the end of his trial. It’s raised the question of why Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Rick Gates, who all pleaded guilty a long time ago, aren’t yet behind bars.
Flynn, Papadopoulos, and Gates all cut plea deals. They each pleaded guilty to reduced charges, and agreed to testify against everyone involved in the Trump-Russia criminal scandal. All three also agreed to go to prison. The fact that they’re still walking around as free men has created a good amount of confusion across social media, particularly now that Manafort is behind bars despite having pleaded not guilty.
The thing about plea deals is that the length of the reduced prison sentence is dependent on how cooperative and useful of a witness the person ends up being. Although Papadopoulos cut his deal about a year ago, Special Counsel Robert Mueller just filed papers a few weeks ago which revealed that he no longer needed Papadopoulos as a witness. Accordingly, the next time Papadopoulos is placed in front of a judge, his sentence will be announced and he’ll go off to prison.
Michael Flynn and Rick Gates are key witnesses against the biggest the players in the Trump-Russia scandal, up to and including Donald Trump himself. They’ll be needed as cooperating witnesses for quite awhile. Eventually they’ll go to prison as well. In fact they may be two of the last people to go to prison in this scandal, because they’ll be needed to testify in essentially every Trump-Russia criminal trial going forward. In criminal conspiracies this large, the irony of the plea deal is that you’re the first to plead guilty, but you may be the last to get locked up.
By the way, some have expressed concern that perhaps the likes of Michael Flynn and Rick Gates have reneged on their plea deals and are now refusing to cooperate at all. However, if that were the case, Robert Mueller would have revoked their deals and re-arrested them by now, complete with arraignment hearings. Court filings would be involved, and it would be all over the headlines. Rest assured, as long as we hear nothing official about those who have cut deals, it means they’re still cooperating.
