U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she had struggled for some time with how to sentence Gates, who met with investigators more than 50 times and helped the government secure convictions of Republican operatives Paul Manafort and Roger Stone after he pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying to the FBI and the special counsel's office and conspiring against the United States.

Jackson said that everyday she sees people who commit crimes "of a much more limited scope" than Gates' offenses who are motivated by drug addictions and poverty, and who then, like Gates, become government witnesses by turning on their own friends and neighbors.

"Even they often serve some time," Jackson noted.