I'm not sure 30 days and $20,000 for a very wealthy attorney fills that bill.*A Dutch lawyer tied to former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates became the first person to be sentenced in Robert Mueller's investigation when a federal judge sentenced him on Tuesday to spend 30 days in prison and pay a $20,000 fine after he admitted to lying to investigators.
Alex van der Zwaan, who worked with Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort while he practiced law at a large international firm, admitted to lying and failing to turn over emails to Mueller's team in February.
He was wrapped into the special counsel's investigation last fall after his firm, Skadden Arps, began to cooperate in an investigation of Manafort and Gates' alleged contact with Ukrainians and Russians during the 2016 election. He lied in his first voluntary interview with investigators in November, and according to both Judge Amy Berman Jackson and prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on Tuesday, was "caught red-handed."
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Van der Zwaan had faced a maximum of five years in prison and a quarter-million-dollar fine for lying to investigators, though federal recommendations had put his likely sentence between zero and six months.
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Van der Zwaan had faced a maximum of five years in prison and a quarter-million-dollar fine for lying to investigators, though federal recommendations had put his likely sentence between zero and six months.
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However, the prosecutor noted how closely watched this case has been and asked the judge for a sentence that would deter other witnesses from misleading the federal prosecutors, especially since he was a lawyer "who should know better."
"We count on people to tell us the truth. We count on people to turn over documents," Weissmann said.
CNN
Van der Zwaan is European and his wife is in London (I believe) and six months pregnant, so, OK. But, for others, if you're on the hook for something that could get you years in prison, lying to federal agents and crossing your fingers doesn't sound like a bad option.
Rumplestiltskin is going to be hopping mad when he sees this on Fox & Friends.[Paul] Manafort has sought to have [his] case dismissed, arguing that the charges against him are outside of Mueller's authority.
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[A] broader court filing [Monday night] from Mueller's prosecutors that offers a full-throated defense of their investigative powers and indictments thus far.
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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told special counsel Robert Mueller in a classified August 2, 2017, memo that he should investigate allegations that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was "colluding with Russian government officials" to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors in the Russia probe revealed late Monday night.
Mueller was also empowered by Rosenstein to investigate Manafort's payments from Ukrainian politicians, a cornerstone of the Trump adviser's decades-long lobbying career that has resulted in several financial criminal charges so far.
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The Ukrainian connections and payments form the basis of the federal criminal charges Manafort currently faces.
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Manafort is scheduled to face a jury in Virginia in July, then awaits trial in DC in September.
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The memo, attached to Monday night's court argument and not previously disclosed even to Manafort, describes how Rosenstein's public order that appointed Mueller in May left out some details so it didn't confirm "specific investigations involving specific individuals."
Most of the investigations and individuals that Rosenstein named in that memo are now redacted -- amounting to almost a full page of withheld information.
CNN
Read Mueller's filed response document here.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.[Mueller] has looked into the work of a consulting firm that's done business in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
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Wikistrat, a Washington-based company that analyzes geopolitical issues, has worked for the United Arab Emirates, which tried to win U.S. backing for a regional blockade on Qatar, the Journal reported. Wikistrat was founded in Israel in 2010.
During the meeting, Zamel was asked about his business relationship with George Nader, an adviser to the U.A.E. and a witness in the special counsel's investigation, according to the report. Mueller's team also asked about Zamel's work for certain clients, the report added.
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Marc Mukasey, a lawyer representing Wikistrat, said neither Zamel nor the company are targets of the Mueller investigation.
"Neither Mr. Zamel nor Wikistrat are the targets of any investigation. Mr. Zamel is a well respected and ethical businessman with a fantastic company and a great reputation," Mukasey told CNBC in an email late Monday.
CNBC
*UPDATE:
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