Former Donald Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates has been sentenced to 45 days in jail for lying to the FBI and conspiracy against the US, his sentence reduced after cooperating in the case against his boss Paul Manafort.

Gates, 47, pleaded guilty to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s charges in February 2018. He was also sentenced to three years of probation, 300 hours of community service, and a $20,000 fine.

"I wish to express to this court that I accept complete responsibility for my actions that have led me here," Gates said before the sentencing, adding that he "greatly regrets the mistakes" he has made.

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US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson praised Gates in the courtroom, saying she believed he has “been at this long enough and under such onerous circumstances that one can believe in the transformation.”

The relatively lenient sentence she passed on Gates seems to be a reward for his testimony against Manafort as well as another Trump confidant, Roger Stone. Berman Jackson was nowhere that gentle with Manafort, whom she sentenced to six years behind bars in March. The 69-year-old former campaign manager was sentenced to a total of seven and a half years in prison in two cases originating in Mueller's 'Russiagate' probe, which never found anything to connect Trump to Moscow.

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Instead, Manafort and Gates were arrested and charged with financial crimes connected to their lobbying work in Ukraine, entirely unrelated to the 2016 election. While Manafort maintained his innocence, Gates turned state's witness, and went on to testify against both his former partner and another Trump confidant, Roger Stone.

It was Gates who told a federal jury that Stone had said he had inside information from WikiLeaks about the "hack" of the Democratic party emails – which was shown during the trial to be false. Even though this debunked a large part of the 'Russiagate' narrative, Stone was found guilty and currently awaits sentencing.

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