Ex-Trump Aide Gates Charged With Conspiracy Against US Amid Russian Probe

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Former Trump campaign adviser Richard Gates has been charged with conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal investigators, a new court document revealed on Friday.

According to the court document, the two new counts against Gates are "conspiracy against the United States" and making a "materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement… to the Special Counsel's Office, including Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

Gates is expected to plead guilty on Friday afternoon, agreeing to cooperate with Mueller's investigation, according to the Washington Post. 

There is no indication of which charges Gates will plead guilty to, but he has already pleaded not guilty to the 12 counts from October that included conspiracy and money laundering.

Mueller on Thursday filed a new indictment of 32 counts against Gates and former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort. The new counts come in addition to 12 filed against each of them in October.

The special counsel found that Manafort with the help of Gates concealed from the United States more than $30 million. Gates received more than $3 million from offshore accounts and used this money to cover personal expenses, such as mortgage and college tuition for his children, the court filing revealed. Over $ 75 million funneled into the defendants' accounts which were located primarily in Cyprus and Grenadines.

The indictments were a product of Mueller’s probe into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Trump campaign ties with Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations of collusion with the Trump campaign and meddling in the US democratic process. Russian officials have called the allegations groundless and invented to deflect opinion from actual election fraud as well as other pressing issues.