Rick Gates, a former top official in President Donald Trump's campaign who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and lying to the FBI, is set to face sentencing Friday although investigators have delayed it before because he is cooperating with multiple investigations.
Still, with Paul Manafort's sentencing already handled, and reports that one of the key prosecutors in Mueller's probe is set to leave "in the near future," the spotlight is now on Gates and the termination of the two-year-long probe, The Hill reports.
"I think we have to take that as another sign that things are near the end," Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor and former assistant U.S. attorney, told The Hill. "What that would mean is not only that he is done cooperating, but that they don't anticipate any trials where they would want him to testify."
Gates, whose sentencing has been delayed four times, was Manafort's business partner and later deputy on the Trump campaign.
Andrew Weissman, the prosecutor who helped lead cases against Manafort and Gates, "will be concluding his detail to the special counsel's Office in the near future," Peter Carr, the special counsel's spokesman, said Thursday.
Manafort earlier this week was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for financial fraud convictions.
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