"He may have played loose with the rules" does not mean "I don't know if he played loose with the rules". It means "Yes, he played loose with the rules, but on the other hand..."
Thanks. I misunderstood the intent and already apologized in another post to that poster. After reading other posters here in the thread that basically mentioned sainthood, etc. for Gates, I let it color my interpretation of that post, I shouldn't have done that and I was mistaken. Anyway, apologies to all for that misunderstanding.