Dutch lawyer is first to be sentenced in Mueller probe

WASHINGTON — A former lawyer for a powerful international corporate law firm was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison for lying to investigators in the special counsel inquiry about his communications with a Trump campaign aide and a Ukrainian businessman believed to be a Russian intelligence operative. The former lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan, is a 33-year-old Dutch citizen, who lives in London. He also is the son-in-law of a Russian billionaire. The court fined him $20,000.

Van der Zwaan admitted that he deceived investigators who interviewed him in November as part of their examination of contacts between the Ukrainian and two former high-ranking Trump campaign officials: Paul Manafort, once Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, and Rick Gates, Trump’s deputy campaign manager. People familiar with the matter identified the Ukrainian as Konstantin V. Kilimnik, Manafort’s right-hand man in Kiev.

Van der Zwaan’s law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, assigned him to work with Gates and Manafort on a report used to defend their client Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russia former president of Ukraine.

Gates has pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to federal investigators and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. Manafort has pleaded not guilty.

Days after Manafort and Gates were first indicted, federal prosecutors questioned van der Zwaan about his contacts with Gates and Kilimnik. Van der Zwaan claimed that he had no substantive conversations with either man in 2016. He has now admitted that he had a series of phone calls with both men.