Rick Gates said he had an extramarital affair years earlier while testifying in the fraud and conspiracy trial of his longtime business partner, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Gates said Tuesday the relationship occurred about a decade earlier while being accused by defense attorney Kevin Downing of keeping a “secret life” involving a London apartment, according to various news reports.
Gates is set to return to the stand for further cross-examination Wednesday morning.
The admission came during Gates’ second day on the stand, when he faced cross-examination from Manafort’s lawyers for the first time. Gates is the central figure in the case for Manafort’s lawyers, who are looking to undercut his credibility as a truthful witness as he testifies that Manafort directed him to commit financial crimes.
Manafort’s former protege pleaded guilty in February to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigators and cut a plea deal that drastically reduced his potential sentence in exchange for his full cooperation in with their probe of potential Russian coordination with the Trump campaign.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the Virginia federal court case, which include multiple counts of bank fraud and filing false income tax returns. If convicted, Manafort could be sentenced to as much as 30 years in prison for each of the most serious counts.
Gates also told prosecutors on Tuesday that Manafort had suggested appointing banker Stephen Calk to a role in the Trump administration after the 2016 presidential election. Calk’s bank had reportedly loaned Manafort $16 million in home loans from December 2016 to early 2017.
“We need to discuss Steve Calk for Sec of the Army,” Manafort wrote Gates in a November 2016 email presented by prosecutors.
