Paul Manafort’s partner, Rick Gates, has already started taking down the people around him. Anyone wanna guess how the White House is gonna react to Mueller indicting someone for lying during an interview and failing to produce emails as requested? 1/
The Hoarse Whisperer added,
Zoe TillmanVerified account @ZoeTillman
BREAKING: New case from the special counsel's office. Defendant is Alex Van Der Zwaan, charged with making false statements. He has a plea hearing scheduled for today at 2:30pm assets.documentcloud.org …
Crapping in his Dockers right now: Jared Kushner He has repeatedly failed to produce documents requested of him while pleading ignorance. Mueller just hung this new guy out to dry for doing the same thing when Mueller already knew of the emails’ existence. 2/
The Trump camp had no idea that all of 2017 would prove to be just one big perjury trap. They lied and lied and lied... ...and Mueller smiled and said “...go on.” while collecting the corroborating evidence and flipping the low-level grifters. 3/
I will be absolutely shocked if by the time this is over, ANY of Trump’s cronies escape charges - other than the ones who flipped or cooperated. “These guys aren’t that smart... and things just got out of hand.” #StupidWatergate
The Hoarse Whisperer? @HoarseWisperer
Mueller is taking this guy down for merely hiding emails and lying about it... That’s a low, low bar. So low, I’d venture a guess Mueller already has that same charge in spades on Junior, Kushner, Hicks and a dozen other staffers.
Mueller charges lawyer with lying about interaction with Rick Gates
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 10:15 AM ET, Tue February 20, 2018
(CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed a charge against a lawyer for lying to investigators about his interaction with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates in September 2016.
Alex Van Der Zwaan is expected to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon. The filing is further evidence of Mueller's investigation of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Gates and their work for Russian-allied clients.
Van Der Zwaan is also accused of lying about the failure to turn over an email communication to the special counsel's office. He was speaking with investigators about his work with Skadden Arps in 2012, when Manafort arranged for the firm to be hired by the Ukrainian Minister of Justice to prepare a report on the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko.
She is one of the top political rivals of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who hired Manafort and Gates as political consultants for more than a decade.
After Yankovych narrowly defeated Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election, she was jailed on charges of corruption that were seen by many as being politically motivated. Skadden produced a report that said the process was legal. She was freed after Yankovych's ouster in 2014.
Van Der Zwaan has a plea hearing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at US District Court in Washington, DC.
Gates close to plea deal
Gates is finalizing a plea deal with Mueller's office, indicating he's poised to cooperate in the investigation, sources familiar with the case told CNN last week.
He has already spoken to Mueller's team about his case and has been in plea negotiations for about a month. His cooperation could be another building block for Mueller in a possible case against President Donald Trump or key members of his team.
Once a plea deal is in place, Gates would become the third known cooperator in Mueller's sprawling probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It would also increase the pressure to cooperate on Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty to Mueller's indictment and is preparing for a trial on alleged financial crimes unrelated to the campaign. Gates pleaded not guilty on October 30 alongside Manafort.
cnn.com |
