FORMER Trump aide Rick Gates, who acted as deputy to Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty on Friday to federal conspiracy and lying in the special counsel’s Russia investigation.

The Post reported earlier today that with a guilty plea, Mr Gates — who reportedly hammered out a plea deal with prosecutors over the past couple of weeks — hopes to protect his family both emotionally and financially from a potentially lengthy criminal trial.

The plea was a strong indication that he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as it continues to probe the Trump campaign, Russian election interference and Mr Gates’ longtime business associate, Paul Manafort.

Mr Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, made the plea at the Federal Courthouse in Washington.

A court filing shows Gates admitted to charges accusing him of conspiring against the US government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities in a recent interview.

Mr Gates’ plea came a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned a 32-count indictment against him and Mr Manafort, Mr Trump’s former campaign chairman, accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud.

Mr Manafort and Mr Gates were initially charged in a 12-count indictment last October as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

The two business partners are accused of tax and bank fraud related to their work for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party and for failing to tell FBI agents they were working as lobbyists for a foreign government.

They are accused of laundering more than $75 million they received for their lobbyist work through various offshore accounts and spending the money on lavish purchases.

Mr Gates stayed on with the Trump campaign after Mr Manafort was fired in August 2016. He served as liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee and travelled on Mr Trump’s plane through Election Day, the newspaper reported.

Mr Gates’s plea comes quickly on the heels of the stunning indictment last week that laid out a broad operation of election meddling by Russia, which began in 2014, and employed fake social media accounts and on-the-ground politicking to promote the Trump campaign, disparage Hillary Clinton and sew division and discord widely among the US electorate.

The charges to which Gates is pleading guilty don’t involve any conduct connected to the Trump campaign. They largely relate to a conspiracy laid out in his indictments, but they do reveal that Gates is accused of lying to the FBI during an interview earlier this month.

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