Rick Gates (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
This deliberate effort to obscure the facts, this disregard for the truth undermines our political discourse and it affects our policymaking. If people don’t have the facts, democracy doesn’t work.
—Judge Amy Berman Jackson during her sentencing of government cooperator and former Trump aide, Rick Gates. Her comments during sentencing reflected the importance of truth and the investigation that uncovered the details of what happened during the 2016 election. Gates was sentenced to 45 days in jail — to be served on weekends — plus three years probation and community service.