Special counsel Robert Mueller has charged a new defendant in the Russia investigation.
The latest target is a lawyer based in London, Alex Van Der Zwaan, who is accused of making false statements. He has a plea hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Van Der Zwaan is charged with making “materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations” to the special counsel’s office and FBI agents.
According to the indictment, the false statements came when Mueller’s team was asking questions about Van Der Zwaan’s work representing the Ukraine Ministry of Justice. He allegedly lied about his last communications with Gates and deleted emails requested by the special counsel’s office, the indictment said.
The Hill reported that Zwaan did so as part of his work as an attorney employed by a firm hired by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice to prepare a report on the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine.
According to The Hill, the new charges come as a result of Gates nearing a plea deal with Mueller that could lead to his testimony against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who faces a series of charges including money laundering and making false statements to the FBI.
Meanwhile, Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has come under renewed scrutiny after federal law-enforcement officials reportedly identified $40 million in “suspicious transactions” to and from his companies. The sum is more than double the amount cited in the charges when Manafort was indicted for money laundering last October.
Between 2004 and 2014, eight different banks are said to have filed 23 “suspicious activity reports,” which detail claims that Manafort received huge sums from banks in tax havens such as Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, and St. Vincent, and there are suspicious-activity reports dating all the way up to 2016.
Manafort pleaded not guilty to all charges in last October’s indictment.
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