Judge rules Rick Gates doesn't have to spend days in jail during coronavirus pandemic

Federal judge Amy Berman Jackson said on Tuesday Gates' sentence of "intermittent confinement is hereby suspended indefinitely," making him the latest high-profile inmate to receive some reprieve during the outbreak.

On Sunday, Gates -- who was a top cooperator in Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation -- asked to serve his jail sentence in home confinement instead, because going in and out of jail, where coronavirus cases have easily spread, could put his family's health at risk. His wife is battling cancer.

"Mr. Gates must now provide additional care for his family for the foreseeable future while his wife continues her treatment for and recovery from cancer," his attorney, Tom Green, wrote to Jackson. "The massive societal disruptions caused by this pandemic are tragic, and the burdens they have placed on Mr. Gates and his family warrant a modification of the condition on his probation."

He added in his court filing, "If Mr. Gates were to return to his home carrying the virus, it could create serious ramifications for his wife."

Jackson sentenced Gates in December to three years probation and 45 days in jail, to be served intermittently such as on weekends. It is not yet known how many days in jail he's spent so far.

Gates was ordered to serve the time after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy for working with Paul Manafort's financially fraudulent Ukrainian lobbying operation and for lying to investigators. Manafort, Gates' longtime boss who is serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania, also has asked the Bureau of Prisons to release him. He would like to serve his sentence under home confinement in Northern Virginia because of the pandemic.

Other high-profile inmates are leaving jail due to the pandemic. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, was notified last week that he will be released early from prison and will serve the remainder of his three-year sentence from home confinement. Michael Avenatti, the attorney who represented Stormy Daniels -- one of the women whom Cohen helped pay to squash her allegation of an affair with Trump, has been granted a temporary 90-day release from a federal jail in New York after a period of quarantine. Trump has denied having affairs with the women.