The latest person charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday afternoon.
Alex van der Zwaan, 33, pleaded guilty to one felony count of making false statements stemming from a November 2017 interview with the special counsel’s office and FBI investigators.
[Robert Mueller charges attorney with making false statements to special counsel’s office]
Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the Dutch citizen’s guilty plea.
After a request by his lawyer that the sentencing date be expedited because his wife is pregnant, the judge set anApril 3 hearing date.
Van der Zwaan’s wife, Eva Khan, is the daughter of German Khan — who has filed a libel suit against Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the Trump-Russia dossier. Khan is one of three owners of Alfa Bank, mentioned in the dossier, which was paid for in part by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
In exchange for the guilty plea, Jackson said federal government prosecutors would not pursue charges against him in connection with any other false statements he may have made in November or December.
Jackson made it clear he had been cooperating with Mueller’s investigation thus far, but did not elaborate on if that will continue following the guilty plea.
According to the criminal information filed by special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weismann, the false statements came amid Mueller’s investigation into Foreign Agents Registration Act violations by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his associate Rick Gates, and “others.”
During the Nov. 3, 2017 interview with Mueller’s office and FBI investigators, van der Zwaan was warned not to lie, but did so anyway.
Van der Zwaan worked for international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom, which was hired to put together a report on behalf of a Ukrainian government ally against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Manafort and Gates both worked with the law firm on the report. Manafort and Gates’ were hired by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2012, and that work is the basis of Mueller’s charges against them both.
Both Gates and Manafort pleaded not guilty in October to charges filed against them by Mueller, which include conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, and giving false and misleading FARA statements.
When van der Zwaan was questioned in November, he said that his last communication with Gates was in August 2016 and his last communication with someone described as “Person A” — a Ukrainian-based associate of Manafort — was in 2014.
Van der Zwaan also said he did not know why an email exchange from 2016 with “Person A” was not given to Mueller’s team.
But federal prosecutors said Tuesday that van der Zwaan spoke with both Gates and “Person A” in September 2016 about the Tymoshenko report, and that he also encrypted recorded calls with the Gates and “Person A,” and destroyed the requested email.
Van der Zwaan, who has been in the U.S. since November, has been released until his next court appearance, but had to turn over his passport to the FBI. He also must stay in the Washington metropolitan area, and is only allowed to travel to Manhattan, where he lawyers are based.
Van der Zwaan will likely be sentenced to zero to six months in federal prison, even though the felony charge is punishable by up to five years.
