Gates’ cooperation could be another building block for Mueller in a possible case against President Donald Trump or key members of his team.

Once a plea deal is in place, Gates would become the third known cooperator in Mueller’s sprawling probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It would also increase the pressure to cooperate on Gates’ co-defendant Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, who has pleaded not guilty to Mueller’s indictment and is preparing for a trial on alleged financial crimes unrelated to the campaign.

…Manafort faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of nine charges and is still under house arrest. His attorney has pledged to fight the charges, and has even sued Mueller and the Justice Department for overreaching the purpose of their investigation with this case.

Manafort and Gates were at the helm of the campaign during the critical summer 2016 period when senior campaign officials, including Manafort, met a group of Russians at Trump Tower who had promised damaging information on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. They were also in charge during the Republican National Convention when a handful of Trump campaign associates met with the Russian ambassador, and when Trump campaign officials intervened to change language on the platform about the Ukraine crisis.

Top Trump campaign adviser close to plea deal with Mueller – CNNPolitics

hmmmmm

[Gowdy] led the GOP Benghazi fever which gripped Congress for over two years—costing taxpayers $7+ million over the course of eight investigations—all of which found no wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton. The man most well-known for leading a partisan witch hunt in order to discredit a future presidential candidate says that he is quitting Congress because “there is more civility in a death penalty case than there is in some Congressional hearings.”

…“sources close to Gowdy,” says that he is unnerved by his colleagues undercutting the Justice Department—yet he voted to release the infamous memo written by a member of Trump’s transition team which smears the FBI and Justice Department as politically biased against Republicans. Not to mention, the Justice Department and the FBI oppose the release of this memo without being able to review it, yet Gowdy’s vote took that power away from them.

…It’s hard to come up with a simple rationale behind Gowdy’s sudden retirement other than these two explanations. He wasn’t in danger for his next election. He won his last one with 67% of the vote, more than doubling his opponent’s vote total. The “I’m sick of hyper-partisanship” explanation doesn’t hold any weight considering he voted down partisan lines last week to release a partisan memo, and that’s before you get to his reputation as a partisan hack. The “I’m sick of fighting my colleagues in order to protect the DOJ” explanation rings hollow too given that he voted to remove power from the DOJ and put it in Trump’s hands. His own staff seemed to not know he was leaving considering they were still sending fundraising e-mails out just prior to him announcing his retirement.

Why Did Trey Gowdy Suddenly Retire from Congress? :: Politics :: Features :: Trey Gowdy :: Paste

hmmmm

A spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represented the officers, said it was an “ambush.” And President Donald Trump said the injured agent had been “brutally beaten” as he called again for the construction of a wall between the United States and Mexico.

But FBI investigators so far have found no evidence of an attack or scuffle in Martinez’s death, the FBI said Wednesday, further deepening the mystery. The investigation, to date, however “has not conclusively determined” how the two agents ended up at the bottom of the culvert — a tunnel structure used for water drainage.

…The only footprints at the scene belonged to the agents and first responders.

…”The second Border Patrol agent also made a statement to the effect of, ‘We ran into a culvert,’ ‘I ran into a culvert,’ or ‘I think I ran into a culvert,'” the FBI said.

The FBI hasn’t found any evidence that border patrol agent was murdered – CNN

So border control can’t keep their own agents from falling into culverts and blames the whole thing on phantom attackers? Gee, I feel so safe with such honest and capable agents guarding our borders. …Not.