The first sentencing hearing related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia is scheduled for Tuesday, almost one year after Mueller was appointed to that role in May, 2017.
Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan will be sentenced in federal court Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. in Washington, D.C.
Van der Zwaan, the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, pleaded guilty in late February to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with senior Trump campaign official Rick Gates and who he knew Gates was talking too.
Last week, it was revealed that Gates told van der Zwaan he was communicating with a former Russian intelligence officer during the 2016 election — van der Zwaan admitted he lied to federal prosecutors about knowing this, and then pleaded guilty.
Also last week, lawyers for van der Zwaan also filed a 30-page memo asking that their client be allowed to avoid jail time, and describing how his life has been ruined.
He faces up to five years in federal prison.
The 33-year-old London-based lawyer who worked with Gates and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is the first person in the probe to be sentenced. In addition to Gates, Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn have also pleaded guilty.
Van der Zwaan, Gates, Flynn and Papadopoulos are all cooperating with Mueller.
Mueller — who led the FBI from 2001 to 2013 — was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last May to look into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and any possible links with the Trump campaign.
So far, 19 people and three Russian organizations have been charged, and indictments have been issued in both Washington and Virginia.
Trump has continually called the investigation a “witch hunt,” and has gone back and forth on whether he will testify.
In February, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump’s lawyers are considering which ways Trump could testify before Mueller.
Last month, the Washington Post reported his lawyers gave the special counsel’s office “written descriptions that chronicle key moments” in hopes of “curtailing the scope of a presidential interview.”
