"He did not appear to embroider,” the judge said. “He didn't come across as some kind of bought-and-paid-for puppet.”

Just a week after Attorney General Bill Barr declared the Mueller investigation was based on a “completely bogus narrative,” Jackson used her perch on Tuesday to deliver what sounded like a pointed, public rebuttal, saying there was “an ample basis” for an aggressive inquiry into the Trump campaign aides’ connections and actions.

“Gates’ information alone warranted, indeed demanded, further investigation from the standpoint of our national security, the integrity of our elections and the enforcement of our criminal laws,” Jackson declared. An appointee of President Barack Obama, she has presided over more of the criminal prosecutions stemming from the Mueller probe than any other judge.

Before handing down Gates’ sentence, which also included a $20,000 fine and 300 hours of community service, Jackson detailed the crimes he’d been charged with alongside Manafort. It included the longtime business partners’ use and access to $75 million that flowed through unreported offshore bank accounts, as well as extensive tax fraud and years of unregistered lobbying in the U.S. for Ukrainian politicians.

As Jackson recounted the long list of crimes, she paused to take a swipe at rhetoric the White House has used when tangling with Trump’s critics.

“Those are facts,” Jackson “Those are not alleged facts. Those are not alternative facts.”

The judge also dismissed claims that such behavior is typical on the Washington political scene.

“Politics don’t corrupt people. People corrupt politics,” Jackson said.

As she did at Manafort’s sentencing, Jackson also bluntly rejected claims that the pair’s unregistered lobbying for Ukrainian interests amounted to a victimless crime.

“What Gates and Manafort did was lying to the members of Congress and the American public,” the judge said. “When people don’t have the facts, democracy doesn’t work.”

Jackson praised Gates for not making arguments aimed at minimizing his culpability or contending that he was somehow duped by Manafort.

Gates is “not sitting here telling me Manafort forced him or coerced him across the line,” the judge said, although she said the lobbying protégé was “obviously taken with Mr. Manafort.”

However, even while praising Gates’ for his decision to accept responsibility for his actions, Jackson said she fretted over the public perception and potential lack of deterrence to others if she gave him a complete pass or at least didn’t align his sentence in relation to other similar cases.

“This is what I’ve been struggling with in anticipation of this sentencing for a long time,” she said. “I have to ask myself, is more needed?”

Speaking from the courtroom lectern before hearing his sentence, Gates delivered a very brief apology.

“Your honor, I wish to express to this court that I accept complete responsibility for my actions that have led me here,” he said, seeming to choke up a bit as he spoke. “I greatly regret the mistakes that I’ve made and I’ve worked hard to honor my commitment to make amends. My family and I appreciate your consideration for leniency. And I hope and pray that you will grant that to me.”

In addition to his cooperation with federal investigators, Gates responded to three congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony and plans to testify at any additional trials if prosecutors make the request.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston repeatedly stressed to Jackson that Gates had delivered “extraordinary” assistance to the government during the high-profile Mueller investigation. His guilty plea also came despite pressure from Manafort to maintain his innocence, as well as an offer relayed by Manafort of financial assistance through a legal defense fund.

Gaston called it a “turning point” for prosecutors when Gates agreed to assist the government.

“He chose to cooperate and wholeheartedly held up his end of the bargain,” she said.

Perhaps more important than Gates’ testimony at any trial was his behind-the-scenes role walking prosecutors through Manafort’s complex financial arrangements, which included tens millions of dollars parked in dozens of offshore accounts with exotic names like Leviathan Advisors and Lucicle Consultants.

Gaston called Gates’ testimony at Manafort’s Virginia trial “necessary” for the government to win its case against the high-flying lobbyist.

The full scope of Gates’ cooperation remains unclear, since the judge received some details about that under seal.

However, the judge seemed to hint at that when she said he may still testify in future and trials. She also signaled that Gates has been working with prosecutors from coast to coast.

“It’s not as if it’s just been a quick foray or dipping your toe into repentance. ... He’s been all over the country, in multiple investigations,” she said, without elaborating.

Jackson’s sentencing on Tuesday closes out one of the last remaining unfinished chapters of Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Only former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Stone still await sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan is set to give Flynn his punishment for lying to investigators on Jan. 28. Jackson is set to sentence Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and intimidating a witness, on Feb. 6.

Gates was a focus in one of Mueller's first official public moves. The former Trump deputy campaign chairman was indicted together with Manafort in October 2017 on charges including money laundering and making false statements.

Initially, Gates stuck by Manafort, pleading not guilty. The two men even discussed the possibility of a Trump pardon, according to the Mueller report. Ultimately, though, Gates turned on Manafort and Trump in February 2018, providing cooperation with federal prosecutors that resulted in the dismissal of some charges against Gates, including the tax and bank fraud crimes.

Gates ended up helping the government during several closely scrutinized moments.

In August 2018, Gates incriminated Manafort from the witness stand in several crimes, including multimillion-dollar tax evasion, bank fraud and hiding offshore accounts. A jury later convicted Manafort, who is now serving a 7 1/2-year prison sentence.

Gates also appeared last month in the trial against Stone, who a jury convicted of lying to Congress about his efforts to contact WikiLeaks in the 2016 presidential race.

Federal prosecutors had Gates explain that the WikiLeaks plotting inside the Trump campaign occured far earlier than had previously been understood, and that the president was also involved in those conversations, despite his previous denials.

Some of the testimony came at significant cost to Gates’ reputation — a fact Jackson alluded to Tuesday. In addition to admitting to a string of financial crimes while testifying at Manafort’s trial in Virginia last year, Gates also admitted to extramarital affairs that he had while working with Manafort.

The federal judge at that trial had deemed Gates’ relationship off-limits, but when a defense attorney asked Gates about how he was funding his “secret life,” the longtime Manafort aide essentially blurted out that he’d had affairs and it was wrong.

“There was a period of time, almost 10 years ago, when I had a relationship, yes,” Gates conceded.

Not every outing Gates made on the witness stand led inexorably to success for the government.

In August, prosecutors used Gates’ testimony to support a false-statement charge against former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig about his lobbying work related to Ukraine. But the testimony seemed to be of meager benefit to the government’s case, especially after Craig introduced a string of character witnesses saying they considered the defendant unfailingly trustworthy.

After a three-week trial, the jury took less than five hours to acquit Craig .

Prosecutors said Craig’s acquittal should not bear on Gates’ sentence. “Gates’ assistance should be evaluated independent of the jury’s decision — he should be given no more or less credit for his cooperation in that matter than had Craig been found guilty,” they wrote.

Still, Gates’ two turns on the witness stand in front of Jackson redounded to his benefit as he seemed to go out of his way to appear earnest and contrite while sitting in the witness box just feet from the same judge who would sentence him.

And, at times during those cases, Jackson stepped in to protect Gates when she felt defense attorneys had gone too far in tangling with the government cooperator.

Gates’ decision to cooperate also had major benefits for his quality of life as the Mueller investigation unfolded. Gates was able to coach a little league baseball team for one of his four children. Jackson also approved numerous out-of-town family trips as Gates’ sentencing was repeatedly postponed.

Letters submitted to the judge for Gates’ sentencing revealed that he’d also been able to spend time with his family at a particularly challenging time: his wife, Sarah, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year and has been receiving treatment.

The sentence of 45 days to be served as “intermittent confinement” appeared to take account of his wife’s medical condition and his family obligations.

Gates had been looking at a maximum total sentence of 10 years in prison for the two charges he pleaded guilty to: conspiracy against the U.S. and making false statements to the FBI. Non-binding sentencing guidelines in Gates’ case called for a prison term of about four or five years, court officials calculated. But Jackson said that range was somewhat inflated because it was based on the total amount of tax losses to the U.S. government—a sum that primarily benefited Manafort.

The sentencing proceeding drew the largest number of Mueller team veterans spotted at the D.C. federal courthouse since Manafort’s sentencing in March. About 20 current and former prosecutors, FBI and IRS agents and support personnel who worked on or closely with the special counsel’s office sat in two rows in the courtroom gallery.

However, the area for spectators was only about half full. And in a sign of how the once mighty Mueller apparatus has dramatically scaled down, Gaston sat alone at the once-crowded prosecution table, flanked only by a couple of legal manuals and a three-ring binder.

Still, the old players made their presence known.

In a moment that seemed to highlight the importance of Gates’ assistance, former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann shook hands with Gates and his lawyer Tom Green before the start of Tuesday’s sentencing. Later, during a break in the proceedings, another former special counsel prosecutor, Greg Andres, flashed Gates and Green a thumbs-up.

Before closing the morning hearing, Jackson offered Gates one final send off.

“Mr. Gates,” she said, “I’m 100 percent certain that this criminal justice system is not going to see you again.”