Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer, was sentenced to 30 days in prison on Tuesday and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine for lying to investigators about his communications with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Ukrainian businessman tied to Russian intelligence about work he performed in 2012.
Van der Zwaan is the first person to receive prison time in the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. His charges are not related to the 2016 election.
Van der Zwaan worked for international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in 2012 when he came to know Manafort, the unidentified Ukrainian businessman, and former Trump campaign deputy manager Rick Gates. The three men hired Skadden to write a report supporting a defiant view of the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, the political rival of their client, Viktor Yanukovych. Var der Zwaan was tasked with writing the report.
Skaaden fired van der Zwaan late last year and said that it is cooperating with the investigation.
Mueller indicted Manafort in Gates last year on charges also unrelated to the 2016 election. Manafort was being investigated long before joining Trump’s campaign.
Van der Zwaan, a 33-year-old Dutch citizen, admitted that he lied to prosecutors about a conversation he had with Rick Gates in September 2016. He also admitted to deleting records of email conversations that the prosecutors were looking for.
Van der Zwaan’s lawyers argued for leniency, saying that his life has already been destroyed by the mistake he made in lying to investigators. They also said his wife in England is going through a difficult pregnancy. The judge didn’t budge.
“This was more than a mistake,” U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said, according to Chicago Tribune. “This was more than a lapse or a misguided moment.”
Four other people have pleaded guilty to charges brought by Mueller. None of the charges are related to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Manafort did not plead guilty and is arguing that Mueller exceeded his mandate by prosecuting him on charges unrelated to the 2016 election. Mueller’s team attempted to defend against that claim by producing a heavily redacted memo written by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year instructing Mueller to investigate improper payments related to Manafort’s work in Ukraine.
