Attorney admits he lied to Mueller’s federal agents
WASHINGTON — A 33-year-old attorney fired last year by a prominent international law firm became the fourth person to plead guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, admitting Tuesday that he lied to federal investigators about his contacts with a Trump campaign official.
Alex van der Zwaan, who worked at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, admitted in Washington’s federal court Tuesday to making false statements about his interactions with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates. His plea deal may allow him to avoid prison.
Van der Zwaan’s plea comes on the heels of an extraordinary indictment from Mueller last week that charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a hidden but robust social media effort that provoked on-the-ground rallies and sought to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and boosting the successful campaign of Republican Donald Trump.
But the charge against the attorney, who is also the son-in-law of a Russian billionaire, does not involve election meddling or relate to the Trump campaign’s operations. Instead, it stems from the special counsel’s investigation into Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, and Gates, who is a longtime business associate of Manafort.