(CNN) Former Trump campaign deputy chair and top Mueller cooperator Rick Gates has asked to change his jail sentence to home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new filing in his court case.

Gates' wife is battling cancer, so Gates going into and out of jail to serve his sentence is particularly risky with coronavirus spreading within detention facilities, his attorney wrote on Sunday.

"Mr. Gates must now provide additional care for his family for the foreseeable future while his wife continues her treatment for and recovery from cancer," his attorney, Tom Green, wrote to Judge Amy Berman Jackson. "The massive societal disruptions caused by this pandemic are tragic, and the burdens they have placed on Mr. Gates and his family warrant a modification of the condition on his probation."

"If Mr. Gates were to return to his home carrying the virus, it could create serious ramifications for his wife," Green added in his court filing.

Jackson sentenced Gates in December to three years probation and 45 days in jail, to be served intermittently such as on weekends. Gates was to do the time after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy for working with Paul Manafort's financially fraudulent Ukrainian lobbying operation and for lying to investigators.

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