“Top official”
This is a tax evasion charge he is copping a plea to isn’t it? He and Manafort may have diverted money they made doing political consulting for foreign countries and then laundered that money through real estate investments where they claimed large building renovation costs. So this has nothing really to do with Russia collusion or Trump but it meant to tarnish any of those who even remotely worked for Trump’s campaign in the eyes of the public to thwart any prospect of Trump’s re-election.
In June 2016, Donald Trump hired Manafort to manage his campaign for president, and Gates went to work for Manafort. Gates handled the day-to-day activities of the campaign. He took responsibility for apparent plagiarism during Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention. Gates stayed with the campaign after Manafort was forced out, and then went to work as a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and the Donald Trump Inaugural Committee. He then helped to form a pro-Trump nonprofit group called America First Policies, but was removed from the organization due to his involvement with Manafort’s overseas ventures.[7]