Trump under investigation in Mueller probe

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US President Donald Trump is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller but is not currently considered a criminal target, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Mueller is investigating possible collusion between Russia and Trump's campaign, a probe the president has denounced as a "witch hunt." The newspaper, quoting three anonymous sources, said that Mueller considers Trump a subject of the investigation, meaning there is currently not enough evidence to bring criminal charges.

Additionally, Mueller told the president's lawyers that he is preparing a report on Trump's actions and possible obstruction of justice, the Post said.

Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who once worked closely with Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former deputy chairman Rick Gates, was sentenced on Tuesday to 30 days in prison and fined 20,000 US dollars for lying to Mueller’s investigators about contacts with an official in Trump’s 2016 campaign. He became the first person to be sentenced in Mueller’s ongoing probe.

Van der Zwaan, who told the court he was sorry for his actions, also was sentenced to two months of supervised release by US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 20 as Mueller intensified his investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

Alex van der Zwaan goes through security at the US District Court after arriving for his sentencing in Washington, DC, April 3, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Van der Zwaan’s apology and his lawyer’s explanations for his client’s actions appeared to ring hollow for the judge.

“This was more than a mistake. It was more than a lapse or misguided moment,” Jackson said.

Van der Zwaan, 33, is married to the daughter of prominent Russian billionaire German Khan, founder of the privately owned Alfa Bank.

In pleading guilty, van der Zwaan admitted that he withheld and deleted emails, and also that he lied to FBI agents about previous communications with Manafort's protege Gates and a person who worked for Manafort in Ukraine identified as “Person A.”

The description of “Person A” in court records matches Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Manafort’s consulting firm in Ukraine. Mueller’s office has said “Person A” has maintained ongoing ties to the Russian military intelligence service and had communicated with Gates and van der Zwaan during the 2016 presidential election.

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump arrives for a bond hearing at US District Court in Washington, DC, Nov. 6, 2017. /Reuters Photo

While van der Zwaan does not appear to be a major figure in Mueller’s probe, his sentencing indicates the special counsel will deal sternly with witnesses who lie to his investigators, with serious criminal consequences, as he scrutinizes the conduct of Trump and others.

The judge said van der Zwaan, unlike some defendants who have come before her, possesses the financial and emotional resources to weather difficult times. “This glass was dropped on a very thick carpet and it has cushioned the blow,” Jackson said.

“Your honor, what I did was wrong. I apologize to the court, and I apologize to my wife,” van der Zwaan, who previously worked for the law firm Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, told the judge.

Van der Zwaan’s attorney, William Jay Schwartz, asked Jackson to impose only a fine and allow his client to leave the country, saying he had already been punished enough and should receive credit for returning to the US to correct the record after lying to Mueller’s investigators.

'Literally in limbo'

Since his return in December, Schwartz said, van der Zwaan has been walled up in a residential hotel in Washington and unable to return to London, where his wife is undergoing a difficult first pregnancy.

“He is literally in limbo,” Schwartz said.

Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor with Mueller’s office, disputed the defense’s characterization of van der Zwaan’s cooperation, saying he returned to the United States after his first interview because he was compelled to do so by a grand jury subpoena.

Weissmann also said van der Zwaan’s conduct demonstrated a “lack of morality,” noting he also lied to his former employer and the US government.

Van der Zwaan worked closely with Manafort and Gates in 2012, before their involvement in the Trump campaign, when they were serving as political consultants for Ukraine’s former pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych on a report about former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Mueller has secured two indictments against Manafort arising from his lobbying for the pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions, with charges ranging from failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiring to launder money, to bank fraud and filing false tax returns. Manafort has pleaded not guilty.

Van der Zwaan and Gates are two of the four men who have pleaded guilty to charges brought by Mueller. Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos also have pleaded guilty.

Mueller, a former FBI director and federal prosecutor, was named last May to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. US intelligence agencies say Russian President Vladimir Putin himself was behind a hacking and disinformation effort to disrupt the election and boost Trump's chances of winning.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters