A Dutch lawyer with direct knowledge of contacts between Russian
intelligence and a top official in Donald Trump’s campaign became
the first person sentenced in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s
sprawling investigation Tuesday.
Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a
$20,000 fine after pleading guilty to lying about his contacts with
former campaign deputy Rick Gates and a former Russian intelligence
official.
Van der Zwaan, a Dutch national with Russian roots and
son-in-law of a prominent Russian tycoon, was a lawyer in London
for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2012 when he
carried out work for the Ukraine government through Gates and
Gates’ close associate Paul Manafort.
In 2016, after Manafort became chairman of Trump’s election
campaign and took Gates as his deputy, van der Zwaan and Gates both
had communications with a person they knew as a former official of
Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, prosecutors said.
According to the FBI, court documents say, that individual —
identified as “Person A” — “has ties to a Russian intelligence
service and had such ties in 2016.”
Van der Zwaan lied to investigators on several occasions about
his contacts with both Gates and “Person A,” prosecutors said.
After his lies were called out, van der Zwaan began cooperating
with investigators, including sharing recordings of his
conversations with Gates, “Person A” and with a senior Skadden
partner.
– Case adds to pressure on Trump –
While the details of those conversations remain secret, court
documents suggest they support the idea of more extensive contacts
between the Trump campaign and Russia during the election than the
White House has admitted.
Van der Zwaan faced up to five years in jail.
He earned a light sentence based on his cooperation with
Mueller’s probe, which is focused on whether there was collusion
between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election.
US intelligence agencies say President Vladimir Putin himself
was behind a hacking and disinformation effort to disrupt the
election and boost Trump’s chances of winning.
Mueller’s team has kept most of the details of what van der
Zwaan told them secret. So it remains unclear whether his
information supports collusion allegations.
But the case adds to the rising pressure on Trump, his family
and top aides from the probe.
Mueller’s team, formally known as the Office of the Special
Counsel, said in a filing that “van der Zwaan is in an unusual
position of having information related to the office’s
investigation that is not widely known — including information that
he knows first-hand due to his role in the conduct the office is
investigating.”
– Manafort-Moscow links eyed –
Mueller, a former FBI director and federal prosecutor, was named
last May to investigate possible collusion between Trump campaign
and Russia.
So far his team has issued indictments of 19 people, including
Gates and Manafort, and 13 Russian nationals, including a close
associate of President Vladimir Putin, who were involved the effort
to use social media to interfere in the US election.
With specific authorization from the US Justice Department,
Mueller has probed deeply into the work Gates and Manafort did for
Russia-allied former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych between
2006 and 2014.
The investigation has reportedly focused on Konstantin Kilimnik,
a former agent of Russia’s GRU intelligence agency who was based in
Kiev and worked with Manafort and Gates during that period.
Kilimnik has told US media that those contacts continued when
Manafort took the lead in Trump’s campaign in 2016, including as a
go-between for Manafort and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a
close Putin associate.
The Washington Post reported last year that in a July 2016 email
Manafort offered Deripaska briefings on the presidential race
during the campaign.
In a court filing on Monday, Mueller defended his expansion of
the probe to cover Manafort’s Ukraine work.
One of the first charged by Mueller, Manafort has pleaded not
guilty to multiple charges of money laundering, tax evasion, bank
fraud and lying.
Facing the same charges, in February Gates reached a plea deal
with Mueller’s prosectors.
He agreed to cooperate in exchange for pleading guilty to one
charge of lying and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United
States, relating to unreported offshore bank accounts.
Culled from afp.com
A Dutch lawyer with direct knowledge of contacts between Russian
intelligence and a top official in Donald Trump’s campaign became
the first person sentenced in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s
sprawling investigation Tuesday.
Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a
$20,000 fine after pleading guilty to lying about his contacts with
former campaign deputy Rick Gates and a former Russian intelligence
official.
Van der Zwaan, a Dutch national with Russian roots and
son-in-law of a prominent Russian tycoon, was a lawyer in London
for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2012 when he
carried out work for the Ukraine government through Gates and
Gates’ close associate Paul Manafort.
In 2016, after Manafort became chairman of Trump’s election
campaign and took Gates as his deputy, van der Zwaan and Gates both
had communications with a person they knew as a former official of
Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, prosecutors said.
According to the FBI, court documents say, that individual —
identified as “Person A” — “has ties to a Russian intelligence
service and had such ties in 2016.”
Van der Zwaan lied to investigators on several occasions about
his contacts with both Gates and “Person A,” prosecutors said.
After his lies were called out, van der Zwaan began cooperating
with investigators, including sharing recordings of his
conversations with Gates, “Person A” and with a senior Skadden
partner.
– Case adds to pressure on Trump –
While the details of those conversations remain secret, court
documents suggest they support the idea of more extensive contacts
between the Trump campaign and Russia during the election than the
White House has admitted.
Van der Zwaan faced up to five years in jail.
He earned a light sentence based on his cooperation with
Mueller’s probe, which is focused on whether there was collusion
between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election.
US intelligence agencies say President Vladimir Putin himself
was behind a hacking and disinformation effort to disrupt the
election and boost Trump’s chances of winning.
Mueller’s team has kept most of the details of what van der
Zwaan told them secret. So it remains unclear whether his
information supports collusion allegations.
But the case adds to the rising pressure on Trump, his family
and top aides from the probe.
Mueller’s team, formally known as the Office of the Special
Counsel, said in a filing that “van der Zwaan is in an unusual
position of having information related to the office’s
investigation that is not widely known — including information that
he knows first-hand due to his role in the conduct the office is
investigating.”
– Manafort-Moscow links eyed –
Mueller, a former FBI director and federal prosecutor, was named
last May to investigate possible collusion between Trump campaign
and Russia.
So far his team has issued indictments of 19 people, including
Gates and Manafort, and 13 Russian nationals, including a close
associate of President Vladimir Putin, who were involved the effort
to use social media to interfere in the US election.
With specific authorization from the US Justice Department,
Mueller has probed deeply into the work Gates and Manafort did for
Russia-allied former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych between
2006 and 2014.
The investigation has reportedly focused on Konstantin Kilimnik,
a former agent of Russia’s GRU intelligence agency who was based in
Kiev and worked with Manafort and Gates during that period.
Kilimnik has told US media that those contacts continued when
Manafort took the lead in Trump’s campaign in 2016, including as a
go-between for Manafort and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a
close Putin associate.
The Washington Post reported last year that in a July 2016 email
Manafort offered Deripaska briefings on the presidential race
during the campaign.
In a court filing on Monday, Mueller defended his expansion of
the probe to cover Manafort’s Ukraine work.
One of the first charged by Mueller, Manafort has pleaded not
guilty to multiple charges of money laundering, tax evasion, bank
fraud and lying.
Facing the same charges, in February Gates reached a plea deal
with Mueller’s prosectors.
He agreed to cooperate in exchange for pleading guilty to one
charge of lying and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United
States, relating to unreported offshore bank accounts.
Culled from afp.com
Read more https://nairalaw.com/dutch-lawyer-is-first-person-sentenced-in-trump-russia-probe/