First sentence made in Russia probe
WASHINGTON — Alex van der Zwaan, a former attorney at a prestigious law firm, was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine on Tuesday for lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe, making him the first defendant in the sprawling criminal case to face sentencing.
Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty in February to lying about his conversations with Rick Gates, who was Donald Trump’s deputy campaign manager in 2016, and an unnamed person who prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence.
Appearing in federal court Tuesday, Van der Zwaan told the judge, “What I did was wrong. I apologize to the court for my conduct.”
The special counsel’s office did not take a position on whether Van der Zwaan should face time behind bars, but suggested he should face a clear penalty.
“People need to know there are consequences for withholding documents and consequences for lying to the government,” Andrew Weissmann, one of the prosecutors, told U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
“This was more than a mistake,” the judge said as she issued the sentence. “This was more than a lapse or a misguided moment.”
She said Van der Zwaan appeared to be a “smart and upand-coming young man,” but said his expressions of remorse “were somewhat muted, to say the least.”
The former attorney is one of five individuals, including Gates, who have pleaded guilty to charges brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is examining whether Trump’s team assisted Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. As part of their plea deals, the five agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.
A sixth defendant, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, is fighting multiple charges of money laundering, bank fraud and tax evasion in federal courts in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors also have charged 13 Russians and three Russian entities — including the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials said churned out social media posts to manipulate American public opinion during the 2016 campaign.
It’s unclear whether Van der Zwaan’s case is related to the U.S. election. As a lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, he helped produce a controversial report used to defend the former pro-Russian government of Ukraine against accusations that it had improperly prosecuted a political opponent.
Gates and Manafort helped lead an undisclosed lobbying campaign on behalf of their Ukrainian client, generating tens of millions of dollars that the two then sought to hide in overseas accounts and front companies, according to court documents.
When asked by investigators about his contacts with Gates and another unnamed person, Van der Zwaan withheld information about communications in the months leading up to the U.S. election. He also deleted messages, according to prosecutors.