Richard W. Gates III (1972) is an American former presidential campaign deputy official for the Donald Trump campaign, a Lobbyist, and a political consultant known for being indicted by the Federal Bureau Investigation along with his longtime business partner, Paul Manafort on charges of 12 counts including conspiracy agains the United States. ^[1]

Born and raised in the United States East Coast sometime in the 1970s, he often traveled throughout various parts of the country growing up as part of his father's military occupations. His father is Richard W. Gates, Jr., a well-known political consultant in Washington, DC- he was also a retired army lieutenant colonel.

After high school, Rick Gates attended The College of William & Mary School of Education where he received is Bachelor's in Government. After some time had passed, he continued to pursue his studies and graduated from George Washington University with Master of Arts degree in Public policy. He also went on to complete the Executive Management program in the European cities of Brussels and London.

From 1995 – 1997, Gates interned at Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, a government and public relations firm representing numerous Fortune 500 companies before the White House, government agencies and the US Congress. He would go on to become a Director for the firm around the same time that Paul Manafort was leaving the firm - the two would reconnect and become longtime business partners.

During his time with the firm, Gates has worked on several US presidential campaigns and has participated in many international political campaigns in Europe and Africa.

In 2003, Gates was a co-founder of Capital Strategies, LLC, a Richmond based public affairs and government relations firm.

During the late 2000s, Mr. Gates was a Director at GTECH UK Limited (based in London) where he headed the company’s international business development program.

From 2000-2005 Mr. Gates served as Partner and COO of Business Strategies and Insight, LLC, a public affairs company that specializes in business development, government procurements, government relations, corporate strategic investments and crisis management.

From 2005 – 2006 Rick served as Vice President of International Business Development and Public Affairs at Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) with responsibility for international business development and government relations. He managed the company’s global public affairs, and worked as a senior member on the M&A team.

In 2011, Gates became a member of the board of directors to Denver, Colorado-based ID Watchdog, a consumer protection company that specializes in resolving identity theft.

Gates resigned from his ID Watchdog board position just one day following the 2016 election.

On October 27th, 2017, Gates and Paul Manafort were indicted by a federal grand jury as part of the 2017 Special Council Investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and related matters.

The twelve-count indictment alleges false statements, money laundering, and failing to register as foreign agents for Ukraine as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act. None of the allegations relate to the Trump presidential campaign itself. Gates surrendered to the FBI on October 30, 2017.

On the day of their indictment, Gates and Manafort pleaded not guilty.

The Government also asked for Manafort's bail to be set at $10 million, and for Gates to be at $5 Million.