A Dutch attorney who was the first person sent to prison in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been deported from the United States.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told the Washington Examiner that Alex van der Zwaan was removed from the country and arrived in the Netherlands today, where he was turned over to the Dutch authorities.
Van der Zwaan, 33, reported to a low-security Federal Bureau of Prisons facility near Allenwood, Penn., in May to serve his 30-day sentence. He was released Monday and immediately transferred to ICE custody.
Van der Zwaan, who worked for U.S. law firm Skadden Arps in London, pleaded guilty in February to lying to federal prosecutors about his knowledge of communications that Rick Gates — a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — had with an unidentified person known as “Person A” in 2016. Van der Zwaan was told by Gates that “Person A” was a former Russian intelligence officer.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him last month to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine.
In April, van der Zwaan’s attorney asked that his client simply leave the court, pay a fine and serve no time. His wife — who is the daughter of a Russian oligarch — lives in London and “needs him now” as she is due with their child in August, argued William Schwartz of Cooley LLP.
Van der Zwaan is the fourth person to plead guilty in Mueller investigation: Gates, Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
