WASHINGTON \u2014 A Dutch attorney who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates and a former Russian intelligence agent was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Alex Van Der Zwaan acknowledged making false statements about communications with Gates and the unidentified agent who prosecutors referred to as \u201cPerson A\u201d as part of the ongoing investigation into Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n
Van Der Zwaan is the first person to be sentenced in the wide-ranging inquiry managed by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson rejected the defense request that he be permitted to pay a fine and return home to London. He faced a maximum punishment of six months in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about a traffic ticket,\u201d Jackson told Van Der Zwaan, adding that his conduct had taken on greater significance because of gravity of the investigation that he had been swept into.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not a momentary lapse,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cHe was essentially caught red-handed. This was not something that happened to him; this is something he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe put his personal interest ahead of the interests of justice,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Before sentencing, the contrite defendant, dressed in a dark suit, offered a brief apology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I did was wrong,\u201d Van Der Zwaan told Jackson. \u201cI apologize to the court; I apologize to my wife and family.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Van Der Zwaan spoke, his father and other members of his family listened from their seats only several feet away. <\/p>\n
The case involving Van Der Zwaan centered on the attorney\u2019s work in 2012 on a report supporting the prosecution of a chief political rival to the then-president of Ukraine whose government was aligned with the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Van Der Zwaan and his law U.S.-based firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, were doing the work with Gates and Manafort. <\/p>\n
Last month, Mueller\u2019s team disclosed in a sentencing memorandum related to the case that Gates was in contact with the person who the FBI believed had ties to Russian intelligence during the run-up to the 2016 election in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Gates and the former intelligence agent were \u201cdirectly communicating\u201d in September and October prior to the election, prosecutors asserted in court documents.<\/p>\n
Gates has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to the FBI and has promised to assist Mueller\u2019s continuing probe into Russia\u2019s interference in the election. Manafort, who was indicted along with Gates in October on money laundering and conspiracy charges related to their Ukraine work, also faces related bank fraud charges in a Alexandria, Va., federal court. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors claim that the attorney, Alex Van Der Zwaan, knew about Person A\u2019s ties to Russian intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cGates told him \u2018Person A\u2019 was a former Russian intelligence officer with the GRU (the intelligence arm of the Russian military),\u201d the court documents state.<\/p>\n
In addition to lying about his communications, Van Der Zwaan also was accused of destroying emails related to those communications, which he was required to provide Mueller\u2019s investigators during his initial interview in November.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told Jackson Tuesday that Van Der Zwaan was \u201cexplicitly warned about the consequences of lying,\u201d yet did so any way.<\/p>\n
Referring to Van Der Zwaan\u2019s position as an experienced attorney who was represented by four lawyers during the interview, Weissmann said Van Der Zwaan\u2019s conduct \u201cdemonstrated a moral compass that was off kilter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense attorney William Schwartz argued that his client should be credited for returning to the United States two weeks after the initial interview in an attempt to \u201ccorrect the record\u201d in a second meeting with Mueller\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe realized that he had made a terrible mistake and had broken the law,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n
Weissmann, however, said Van Der Zwaan was required to return from his London home because he was served with a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury following the November interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should know that there are consequences for withholding documents and there are consequences for withholding the truth,\u201dWeissmann told Jackson.<\/p>\n
Schwartz said his client\u2019s quick return to London was necessary because his wife was suffering through a difficult pregnancy and that his mother needed his support there.<\/p>\n
But Jackson, while acknowledging his family predicament, characterized their plights as \u201ccollateral damage\u201d inflicted by Van Der Zwaan.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON \u2014 A Dutch attorney who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates and a former Russian intelligence agent was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine Tuesday. Alex Van Der Zwaan acknowledged making false statements about communications with Gates and the unidentified…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio-seabreeze-fm"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioseabreezeisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}