Robert Mueller and Rick Gates have something new cooking against Donald Trump
It’s a story that’ll get far too little coverage today, both because it’s coming on the same day as Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal, and because it’s a bit too vague to make for a ratings-friendly cable news narrative. But it’s a major development nonetheless: Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Rick Gates have agreed to delay his sentencing by ninety days, according to new publicly available court filings. Why is this so important?
Rick Gates cut a plea deal more than two months ago. He already spilled his guts to Robert Mueller a long time ago. There’s only one possible reason for his sentencing to be delayed: the Trump-Russia investigation is expanding into new and unexpected territory, involving areas of Gates’ knowledge that neither he nor Mueller initially thought were going to be relevant. Oh, and this isn’t about Gates’ former business partner Paul Manafort, because Mueller already revealed in previous court filings that his plea deal with Gates wasn’t about Manafort, it was about Trump-Russia collusion.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s clear that by now, Robert Mueller’s investigation is focused squarely on Donald Trump himself. Mueller has sent Trump proposed interview questions. Mueller just finished interviewing Tom Barrack, the closest thing Trump has to a personal friend, about Trump-Russia collusion. In other words, Mueller has hit on something new about Donald Trump conspiring with Russia, something that Rick Gates knows all about, which Mueller didn’t initially think was going to be relevant enough to ask Gates about the first time around.
This may all sound a bit vague, but it’s important. Robert Mueller’s case against Paul Manafort are getting the big headlines because it’s approaching the trial stage, where the fireworks become publicly visible. But Mueller’s moves against Donald Trump are the ones that matter, and now we know that he’s hit on something unexpected, and big enough to keep Rick Gates around for a bit longer before shipping him off to prison.
