Thread by @RealMattCouch

A little thread on Alex Van Der Zwaan..

You'll see again what a NOTHING Burger this is..

#AlexVanDerZwaan
#TuesdayThoughts

The London-based son-in-law of one of Russia’s wealthiest men is set to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon in Washington to making false statements in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Alex Van der Zwaan was charged with one count of making false statements, a felony, about his work as an attorney employed by a law firm engaged in 2012 by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice to prepare a report on the trial of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko was imprisoned by former president Viktor Yanukovych for signing a controversial gas supply deal in 2009 with Russia. Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan.

U.S. prosecutors in Mueller’s office said the case was related to former Trump 2016 presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was an adviser to Yanukovych.

#AlexVanDerZwaan

After their October indictments, Manafort and his longtime employee, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and money laundering charges arising from the allegedly secret lobbying work for a Russian-friendly political party in Ukraine.

In a two-page information document, prosecutors alleged that Van der Zwaan falsely told the FBI and Mueller’s office that his last communication with Gates was in mid-August 2016 in an innocuous text message

and his last communication with another, unnamed person was in 2014 when Van der Zwaan discussed that person’s family.

Van der Zwaan also allegedly falsely said he did not know why a September 2016 email between him and the other person, identified in court documents only as “person A” was not produced to prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged Van der Zwaan spoke with Gates and Person A regarding the report on Tymoshenko and recorded the calls. Van der Zwaan also allegedly “deleted and otherwise did not produce emails” sought by prosecutors and an unnamed law firm.

Van der Zwaan is expected to appear at an arraignment and plea hearing at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington.

A criminal information is a type of charging document that can be filed only with a defendant’s permission and usually indicates the person is cooperating with investigators. A judge does not have to accept a plea deal, and a defendant can change his mind before making a plea.

Skadden in a statement Tuesday said, “The firm terminated its employment of Alex van der Zwaan in 2017 and has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter.”

U.S. authorities in 2016 asked the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm for information and documents related to its work on behalf of Yanukovych’s government

including Manafort’s work arranging the report used by the former president’s allies to justify his rival Tymoshenko’s arrest.

The Skadden Arps report has been controversial in Ukraine since it was commissioned by Yanukovych’s government because its findings seemed to contradict the international community’s conclusion that Tymoshenko had been unjustly jailed

and because the Ukrainian government claimed to have paid only $12,000 for the report, an amount that put it just below the limit that would have required competitive bidding for the project under Ukrainian law.

Subsequent investigations found the Ukrainian government spent as much as $1 million on the report and emails found after Yanukovych fled Ukraine to Moscow in 2014 showed that Manafort had been intimately involved in the effort.

Kenneth McCallion, a lawyer who unsuccessfully sued Manafort in New York on Tymoshenko’s behalf, said he was pleased that Mueller’s team appears to have taken on the issue of Manafort’s work in Ukraine

including in the jailing of his former client. “I’m relieved that this matter did not fall through the cracks,” he said.

Now what in the Hell is our Special Prosecutor, paid for by American Tax Payers doing meddling in Ukrainian affairs like this? Great Question isn't it America?

Khan is a billionaire and an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group, according to Forbes.

A native of Kiev, Ukraine, Khan worked as executive director of oil business TNK-BP, a joint venture with BP, before leaving the company in March 2013, according to Forbes, after Alfa Group and partners sold a 50% stake in it to state-owned Rosneft for $28 billion.

Khan and his partners at Alfa Bank, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, in October filed a $75,000 defamation suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against Glen Simpson and Fusion GPS in connection with the research firm’s role in producing the fake Steele Russian dossier

A series of reports by Christopher Steele, a British former intelligence officer who was hired by Fusion in June 2016 to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

Khan’s attorney in the defamation case, Alan S. Lewis of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn in New York City, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lawyers for Fusion did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but have asked a court in filings to toss out the defamation lawsuit saying it was groundless.