Robert Mueller charges lawyer with lying to federal investigators during Russia inquiry
News Corp Australia Network, 21 February 2018
ROBERT Mueller, the special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, has charged a lawyer with making false statements to FBI agents conducting the investigation.
Alex Van Der Zwaan, the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, made the statements in November 2017 when he was interviewed about his work with a law firm hired in 2012 by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice to create a report on Yulia Tymoshenko.
Ms Tymoshenko was the first woman appointed prime minister of Ukraine, court documents say.
According to the Post, Mr Van Der Zwaan “wilfully and knowingly made materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements” about his communications with Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and business partner to Paul Manafort.
The court papers, filed on Friday, say his last contact with Mr Gates came in August 2016 and involved “an innocuous text message.” He also lied about his contacts with “Person A,” whom he talked with in 2014.
Mr Van Der Zwaan also spoke with Mr Gates and “Person A” about the report in September 2016, but deleted and did not turn over emails about the meeting, the documents say.
