BREAKING: Mueller letting Gates off the hook.....

[brooklynite]

...for some reason.

[MineralMan]

1. Not all charges have been dismissed.

Looks like Gates has done several back-flips to earn those dismissals.

That must be worrisome for certain others, though.

[jberryhill]

2. How is that "letting off the hook"?

Gates is still guilty on 8 felonies.

Gates pled guilty to counts 1-4 and 11-14. This is not a surprise of some kind.

Yes, in exchange for the guilty plea and cooperation, the other charges were dropped. That's the entire point of making a deal.

[Fred Sanders]

18. Sometimes at DU it is the same trigger happy read the headline only and repost fever as at Foxxx.

[sarah FAILIN]

24. We aren't all attorneys, lol

We also get excited easily.

[Pachamama]

3. Mueller is rewarding Gates for his information.....

.....And now we know the reason that the Shithole is tweeting about a WITCH HUNT this morning....

[Stallion]

4. He's dismissing the supplemental counts Gates did not plead guilty to because of cooperation

....he's already plead guilty to 2 lesser counts

[underthematrix]

5. This means if Gates phucks up, the

Special Counsel can refile charges

[exboyfil]

8. Yes without prejudice

that means that if he doesn't sing the right tune, the hammer still falls.

[underthematrix]

12. Bingo. And it tells me whatever he

have them it's big big big and may not Jared and Ivanka hard.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Normal result of a plea deal...

[atreides1]

7. Not all charges are being dismissed

Those are the counts dropped because Gates pleaded guilty to other counts and likely offered up information on his business partner Manafort!

[NCTraveler]

9. Looks like the deal got sweeter.

Where are you hearing he was let off the hook? Can you provide a link to the breaking story that states the reasons why they feel he is being let off the hook or are those your own personal thoughts?

[Phoenix61]

10. That's how a plea deal works

You make nice and give them info they want. They make nice and charges go bye-bye. Except the ones you plead guilty to.

[marylandblue]

11. This was part of the plea deal

Government agreed to drop all charges he didn't plead guilty to. Also note the words "without predjudice," which means they can always bring back the charges if Gates doesn't behave.

[PRETZEL]

13. Could this also mean that

at sentencing, Mueller could recommend probation?

[marylandblue]

15. There some vague language in there about actual sentence

is up to the judge and how well he cooperates would be taken into account, but there is no promise along those lines.

[PRETZEL]

16. Thanks nt

[Renew Deal]

14. They threw everything they had at him last week to prove a point.

I suspect they made their point.

[MelissaB]

17. Dismissed charges and not a reduced sentence? Makes you wonder if he didn't just sing, but gave a fu

Dismissed charges and not a reduced sentence? Makes you wonder if he didn't just sing, but gave a full concert.

Link to tweet

[jberryhill]

19. Another misinformed tweet

This case is nowhere near sentencing.

Sentencing is up to the court. The prosecutor may make a recommendation when the time comes for sentencing. But we are nowhere near the stage when anyone would be talking about sentencing.

[Demsrule86]

20. He obviously gave very valuable information and probably needs to go into witness protection.

[onenote]

21. This isn't necessarily as meaningful as it may seem.

There are a lot of moving parts here, but what needs to be taken into account is that the original indictment against Gates and Manafort was filed in October in the District Court for the District of Columbia. The motion to dismiss filed today relates to an indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia.

It appears that Mueller and his team ran into an issue as to whether the charges originally brought in DC were properly brought there or should have been brought in Virginia. The indictments in the two courts overlapped substantively. Rather than have indictments in two separate courts, Mueller sought to have Gates and Manafort waive any objections to certain charges being brought in DC, which allowed Mueller to drop those charges in Virginia. I don't pretend to understand all the details, but the filings with the DC court made last week expressly alluded to an agreement to dismiss the charges in the Eastern District. An explanation of some of this, albeit not completely clear, can be found here:
https://lawfareblog.com/whats-new-paul-manafort-and-rick-gates-indictment

[CakeGrrl]

22. The reason being that Mueller got A LOT in return for the plea.

Like President Obama, Mueller plays it close.

Whatever Gates has given him will likely help move the next indictment(s) forward.

[leftynyc]

23. Clickbait OP

First, this is what happens when you plead out. Second, they were dropped without prejudice which means they can be installed again at any time. You know better than this BS headline.