Here's Rick Gates' now-unsealed motion to file an exhibit under seal. "The exhibit involves highly sensitive matters concerning" Gates, his lawyers wrote. The judge ordered him to file a redacted version, so we should be getting that at some point assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4368… 
Rick Gates' lawyers are due in court at 10:30am for a sealed hearing on their motion to withdraw as his counsel. The exhibit that explains the reasons for that request to withdraw remains under seal.
There are a couple things going on: Rick Gates' lawyers want to withdraw. We don't know why -- the reasons are under seal. In notifying the court that they served Gates with that motion, they included an exhibit, which Gates asked to be filed under seal -- in a sealed motion 1/2
So now the judge has unsealed Gates' motion to seal the exhibit, and ordered Gates to file a redacted version of the exhibit on the public docket (we don't know when exactly that will happen). The lawyers' reasons for asking to withdraw remain under seal 2/2
Okay, Rick Gates is in the courtroom now with his lawyers Shan Wu, Walter Mack, and Annemarie McAvoy, plus special counsel office prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. No sign of Tom Green, who has been representing Gates but hasn't entered an appearance in court
The hearing is sealed, so they've locked the doors and blacked out the windows
Long story short: We don't know much that's concrete about what's going on with Rick Gates right now.
Hearing just let out - Rick Gates' lawyers said they are still under the gag order, but his attorney Shan Wu confirmed that as of now there has been no change to Gates' legal representation
Notice from the court confirming that the judge did not rule from the bench during today's sealed hearing on the motion filed by Rick Gates' lawyers to withdraw 
And here's the judge ordering more docs unsealed related to whatever is going on with Rick Gates and his lawyers. The judge is unsealing two motions to seal, and, because she granted one of those motions, the underlying exhibit will be unsealed also 
Latest: Newly unsealed court filing says that "irreconcilable differences" developed between Rick Gates and his lawyers "which make our effective representation of the client impossible." No other details. Here's the document: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4369… 
The judge also unsealed another motion filed yesterday by Gates' lawyers to file a different exhibit under seal. The judge granted that motion, so we don't have access to that exhibit. Here's the motion, though: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4369…
Notably, both motions to seal filed by Rick Gates' lawyers use the same line: "This exhibit involves highly sensitive matters concerning the Defendant and public disclosure of the information would potentially be prejudicial to the Defendant as well as embarrassing" 
I'm getting a lot of responses asking "what does this mean," and the short answer is: I don't know. There are a lot of reasons why lawyers and clients split up — money issues, different ideas about strategy, etc. We just don't have a lot of information to work with right now.
