Manafort Co-Defendant Rick Gates Defense Team Stepping Down

 

Three lawyers for Paul Manafort’s co-defendant, Rick Gates, have told the court they want to quit in the criminal money-laundering conspiracy case, bolstering the idea that he may be cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The lawyers filed their reasons for leaving under seal, adding to the intrigue about their abrupt departures. Gates has reportedly hired Washington defense attorney Tom Green, who is known for working out cooperation deals with the government.

The attorneys, Shanlon Wu, Walter Mack and Annmarie McAvoy, sought permission to quit in a two-page filing late Thursday with U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington. Their reasons for doing so remain under seal.

In an indictment unsealed in late October, Gates and Manafort were accused of money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying related to their work on behalf of Ukraine’s former president and his political party. That work occurred years before they went to work on Trump’s election bid. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Manafort was brought into Donald Trump’s campaign by a longtime Trump friend, Tom Barrack, who later employed Gates. Barrack said he met Gates during the campaign and later tapped him to work on Trump’s inauguration committee, which Barrack ran, and at his real estate company. Gates was fired following the indictment.

Green has previously represented former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, retired U.S. General Richard Secord in connection with the Reagan era Iran Contra scandal and former Assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian in the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal, according to his firm biography. Green didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.

The case is U.S. v. Manafort, 17-cr-201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).