Rick Gates, former Trump campaign aide who testified to Mueller, seeks home confinement due to coronavirus pandemic

Gates' wife is battling cancer, so Gates going into and out of jail to serve his sentence is particularly risky with coronavirus spreading within detention facilities, his attorney wrote on Sunday.

"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 Judge Amy Berman 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."

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

Jackson sentenced Gates in December to three years probation and 45 days in jail, to be served intermittently such as on weekends. Gates was to do the time after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy for working with Paul Manafort's financially fraudulent Ukrainian lobbying operation and for lying to investigators.

He became one of the most significant cooperators against other convicted Trump operatives like Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, and shared hours of previously secret details about the President and his campaign during the Russia investigation. Gates was commended by Jackson at his sentencing for reforming his life and telling the truth.

His attorney did not disclose in his request Sunday how many days in jail Gates has served so far.

Green wrote that the DC US Attorney's Office, which took over the case from former special counsel Robert Mueller, didn't oppose his request.