the same individual said he did not believe gates had information to offer mueller s team that would turn the screws on trump. the president has repeatedly calls the russia investigation a witch hunt. michael bennett for the l.a. times and jack sharman, these days financial services during the white water investigation. he is now a criminal defense attorney. jack, i d like to begin with you. rick gates guilty plea, what does that say to you, and what will you want to know from it? well, it says that obviously he is going to testify against mr. manafort if necessary. that is a tool to put pressure on his co-defendant to work out his own deal. the indictment and presumably whatever he ends up pleading to
information to offer mueller s team that would turn the screws on trump. the president has repeatedly calls the russia investigation a witch hunt. michael bennett for the l.a. times and jack sharman, these days financial services during the white water investigation. he is now a criminal defense attorney. jack, i d like to begin with you. rick gates guilty plea, what does that say to you, and what will you want to know from it? well, it says that obviously he is going to testify against mr. manafort if necessary. that is tool to put pressure on his co-defendant to work out his own deal. the indictment and presumably whatever he ends up pleading to are separate from any campaign related issues or russian interference issues. but they could conceivably, if they let mr. manafort who d want to resolve his own case, that
could lead to further revelations in that regard. and i can t remember the exact wording from the podium and president when manafort started getting so much attention. trump said, you know, he was here for a very short period of time. remind us the manafort-gates relationship and what these two gentlemen may have to offer mr. mueller. so paul manafort was donald trump s campaign manager from june 2016 to august 2016, which was a critical time because that s when the republican national convention happened. and rick gates was a long-time associate and business partner with paul manafort. particularly when manafort was working as an alleged paid
defendant subjects in these complex investigations routinely enter what s called a common defense agreement or joint defense agreement, they can share privileged material without giving up the attorney/client privilege. they generally require when somebody changes from the common defense to talking to the government, they must notify the other parties to the agreement so they don t continue to share privileged material with an individual who might be talking to the government. it is pretty clear from reports that that kind of notification has been given to attorneys in the russian investigation by flynn s attorneys and that probably means that flynn has at least scheduled a meeting to talk to mueller s team. in terms of content, and speaking about the government. in march, he offered to talk to the fbi in congress but in return for immunity. they said, no, we will turn you down on that. does it mean he has a bigger fish to offer mueller s team? well, i think that s likely,