Thread by @Monaheart1229

"Manafort’s ex-business partner Rick Gates becomes pivotal figure in trial" Uzo Asonye told the judge that the Prosecution may not call Gates....READ THIS! #WednesdayWisdom
wapo.st/2mZSIOB?tid=ss…

2/"Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye surprised those watching the Paul Manafort trial Wednesday when he vaguely suggested Richard Gates, Manafort’s former business partner, might not testify. Gates was expected to be the prosecutors’ star witness, a man who could describe the

3/"fraud that the government says Manafort perpetrated because he was a part of it. He has also been the focus of Manafort’s defense attorneys, as they say Gates embezzled money from Manafort’s company and committed fraud to cover his own tracks. As Rachel Weiner explained in her

3/"post looking at the characters in the Manafort trial, Gates and Manafort were close. She wrote:"Gates started his career as an intern at the aggressive, controversial political consulting firm Manafort co-founded, working closely with Republican lobbyist Rick Davis. Gates left

4/"the firm to work for companies in the lottery and gaming business, former partner Charlie Black has said. But he reunited with Davis and Manafort at their new firm in 2006 and became, in the words of his indictment, Manafort’s “right-hand man.” Manafort had just begun doing

5/"political consulting work for Viktor Yanukovych, an aspiring Ukrainian politician with ties to Russian oligarchs." Gates would go on to help Manafort with that work, and prosecutors say both men committed fraud. But Gates pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and

6/"lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Court observers figured his testimony would be a highlight of the trial. It still could be. Asonye said there was nothing particular about Gates that made it such that prosecutors might not call him, only that the

7/"government was trying to speed the case along. If prosecutors did not, they would have to rely on documents and other witnesses — who perhaps were not as intimately involved in the dealings as Gates was — to build their case...Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye surprised the

8/"judge when he casually mentioned that Richard Gates, Paul Manafort’s former partner and the expected star witness of the case, may or may not testify. The prosecutor was responding to a question about an agenda from a meeting with Gates in 2013.“He may testify, he may not,”

9/"Asonye said of Gates. “We’re trying to shorten the trial.” The prosecutor said that was not because of anything particular to Gates; every witness, he said, might not be necessary depending on how the evidence unfolds. Ellis said it was news to him and obviously many others.

10/"“Twenty-five people just scurried out of here like rats leaving a sinking ship,” Ellis said, referring to reporters who left the courtroom to post about what the prosecutors said. Gates not taking the stand would be a curious development in the case. Prosecutors had accused

11/"Gates of being a participant in most of the fraud that Manafort is charged with, and he would be able to provide an intimate window into what they were doing. Earlier this year, Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors

12/"Manafort’s lawyers, though, have made Gates the centerpiece of their defense. They have said Gates embezzled money from the men’s business and the fraud was meant to hide his own misdeeds.“Rick Gates had his hand in the cookie jar and he couldn’t take the risk that his boss

13/"might find out,” one of Manafort’s defense attorneys said Tuesday."
This is a long article, but well worth your time. What I've threaded here is just an excerpt about the Gates situation. Article written by a team from WAPO, pub at 3:27 pm- 8/1/18