Rick Gates Calls on Trump to Pardon Him — And Everyone Convicted of Crimes by Mueller Probe

Donald Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign manager — and now convicted felon — Rick Gates told MSNBC’s Ari Melber that the Mueller probe was a cabal to “take down the president” and called on the president to pardon not only himself, but everyone convicted of crimes related to the investigation.

Gates, who was indicted in 2017, pleaded guilty of charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators last December and was sentence to 45 days in jail and three years of probation. He decreased his sentence by cooperating with investigators in their case against his former boss, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has been convicted on a number of fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges.

Having authored a new book, Wicked Game, Gates appeared on The Beat with Ari Melber on Wednesday evening. Speaking with the MSNBC host, Gates slammed the Muller probe, which he said proved “just how broken the justice system was.”

When Melber contrasted the Gates’ full serving of his sentence with the pardon fellow convicted felon Roger Stone received before spending a single day in prison, Gates shrugged it off.

“Look, I think everybody should be ultimately forgiven in this process, particularly since it was an absolute fraudulent process,” Gates said. “In the sense that we…”

“You’re dodging the question, Rick. You’re dodging the question, which you can…” Melber said, breaking in. “Rick, you can dodge the question. We got smart viewers who will say, oh, Rick Gates went through all this and he’s still dodging the question to protect Roger Stone. Who we just stipulated was still full of it. Why? If you went through this and your family went through this and the president goes in and intercedes and keeps Roger out of prison but not you, is that fair?”

“Look, I’m not going to speak for the president and his decisions and I’m not dodging the question,” Gates pushed back, before hitting back at the Mueller probe. “What I think is that everyone involved in this was part of a structure to take down the president. So I think everybody should have an opportunity where the president says: ‘This is not right, this is not fair,’ and, yeah, ultimately, he pardons all of us.”

Moments later, Melber pointed out Trump’s possible hesitancy to pardon any more of his former convicted campaign officials in the home stretch of the 2020 race.

“The president clearly thinks too many pardons would hurt his re-election,” the MSNBC host said. “He did some like Stone.”

“[Stone] said publicly in July: ‘Trump knows I was under pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably but I didn’t.,'” Melber explained. “Implying he knows something incriminating. You can’t turn on someone unless you have something on them. You’re saying you would like this pardon. You understand or get why Trump thinks that would be unpopular before a campaign but maybe he would do do it later?”

“It sounds like you’re saying the president only uses his pardon power in these cases for people who might have something on him like Roger stone,” Melber added, “and not for other people who don’t, even if they were broadly honest in their testimony.”

Gates pushed back on that assertion.

“No, I disagree with that,” he replied. “I think the president’s got to make a decision on each individual case. Clearly he’s not talking this way about Mike Flynn either who I think, you know, is obviously going through his own issues, but, you know, why the president pardoned Roger and not others at this time, I can’t honestly tell you.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.