Mueller team charges lawyer linked to ex-Trump adviser with lying to FBI

5 hours ago

Mueller team charges lawyer linked to ex-Trump adviser with lying to FBI

By Adam Shaw | Fox News


Mueller charges lawyer with making false statements

Judge Napolitano analyzes the latest developments in special counsel Mueller's investigation.

Prosecutors for FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe on Tuesday charged a lawyer connected to former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates with lying to investigators during an interview about his communications with Gates.

Alex Van Der Zwaan was charged with making false statements to investigators in an interview about his time working for a law firm employed by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice in 2012, when he helped produce a report on the trial of Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko. The charge was filed ahead of a plea hearing scheduled for later Tuesday. According to The Washington Post, Van Der Zwaan is the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan.
That firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, told The Associated Press that it fired Van Der Zwaan last year and has been cooperating with authorities. The New York Times reported in September that the Justice Department had requested documents from the firm related to its work in Ukraine on behalf of the government of Russia-aligned President Viktor Yanukovych.

The Times reported that the report the New York-based firm drafted was used to justify the jailing of Tymoshenko -- a political rival of Yanukovych.

Van Der Zwaan is alleged to have lied about his last communication with Gates, who was indicted in October along with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on charges related to their work in Ukraine.

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Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates is reportedly expected to plead guilty to fraud-related charges. (AP)

Gates, a former business partner of Manafort, is expected to plead guilty to fraud-related charges in the next few days as part of a plea deal with Mueller, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The court document notes that Van Der Zwaan said he “did not know why an email between him and Person A in September 2016 was not produced to the Special Counsel’s Office” and that his last communication with Gates was in August 2016. It also says he claimed that his last communication with an unidentified “Person A” was in 2014.

But Mueller's team alleges that he spoke with Gates and Person A in September 2016, and that he deleted "and otherwise did not produce emails" sought by Mueller’s office -- including an email between him and “Person A” in September 2016.

The report that was produced by the firm was cited in the 12-count indictment against Manafort and Gates. That indictment accused the two men of acting as unregistered lobbyists in connection with the rollout of the report. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates "used one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly for the report."

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Mueller indictments being seen through partisan lens?

The new charge comes after Mueller's team on Friday indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies for allegedly interfering in the 2016 election.

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