Rick Gates was Paul Manafort's deputy for years, as they traveled the world working on behalf of murderous dictators and anyone else who would pay the bill. That included Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Around the time Manafort joined the Trump campaign—and Gates went with him—he was reportedly $20 million in debt to Deripaska, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies who won the bloody Aluminum Wars as Russia transitioned from Soviet totalitarianism to oligarchy. Manafort volunteered to work for the Trump campaign pro-bono.

Anyway, now Manafort's on trial at a federal court in Virginia on a litany of financial crimes charges related to his overseas work and the money he allegedly received for it. Gates was once essentially a co-defendant—until he flipped and became state's witness. Gates took the stand today and did plenty of witnessing:

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BREAKING: Rick Gates in trial:



Prosecutor: "Were you involved in any criminal activity with Mr. Manafort?"



Gates: "Yes."



Prosecutor: "Did you commit any crimes with Mr. Manafort?"



Gates: "Yes."https://t.co/kdrUxk2XiK — NBC News (@NBCNews) August 6, 2018

Is that bad? That seems bad.

Gates went on to detail, quite extensively, what he and Manafort used to get up to. The Washington Post was there:

Presented with a copy of the plea agreement he signed in federal court in Washington, Gates said he conspired with Manafort to falsify Manafort’s tax returns. Gates said he and Manafort knowingly failed to report foreign bank accounts and had failed to register Manafort as a foreign agent.

Andres, the prosecutor, asked Gates whether he understood that his lies to Manafort’s accountants and omissions were illegal.

“Yes,” Gates said.

When asked why he had lied, Gates said he had done so at Manafort’s request.

Separately, Gates explained that Manfort had directed him to report money wired from his foreign bank accounts as loans, rather than as income, in order to reduce Manafort’s taxable income. By reporting it as a loan, Gates explained, Manafort could defer the amount of taxes he owed.

Apparently, this whole exercise was not very well received in the defendant's box:

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I have seen some cold stares in my life but watching Paul Manafort stare down his former deputy, arms crossed, as Rick Gates recounted the long list of his alleged crimes was remarkable. #ManafortTrial — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) August 6, 2018

To add insult to injury, Gates also declared he'd stolen money from Manafort, too.

While helping him commit crimes, Rick Gates admits he also embezzled from his boss, something Paul Manafort’s defense attorneys have said repeatedly throughout the trial.

Gates said he had authority on some of Manafort’s Cyprus accounts, which were set up by a law firm in that country. “I added money to expense reports and created expense reports” that were not accurate, he said, to pad his salary by “several hundred thousand” dollars.

Who among us wouldn't embezzle some of the money we're hiding on behalf of our boss in Cyprian bank accounts?

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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