Alex Van Der Zwaan illegally tried to obstruct the #TrumpRussia investigation by lying about withholding evidence, but the charge by Mueller also could be a means to get Alfa Bank evidence as well as sending Paul Manafort a message. Because flipping on Agent Orange.
Remember that it’s a smoldering arsenal rather than a smoking gun. And US law requires discovery, so the explosive rat has yet to be found.
Van Der Zwaan is also “the son-in-law of a Ukranian-Russian oligarch (German Kahn) named in the controversial Donald Trump dossier.” The message could also be to Kahn to tell him to back off Fusion GPS.
The key piece of information in all of this is the timing: Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign manager on August 19, 2016 — weeks before the alleged conversations between Gates, Person A, and van der Zwaan. The resignation was the result of widespread reporting about Manafort’s shady ties to Yanukovych, particularly an allegedly off-the-books payment.
If Gates and van der Zwaan were talking about the Skadden report in September 2016, and van der Zwaan felt the need to lie to the FBI about it, it suggests that there may have been something criminal about the report’s production — or at least, something whose release would be politically damaging.
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It’s still about following the money.
...German Khan, a billionaire who filed a libel suit in October against Fusion GPS, the investigation firm behind a partly unsubstantiated intelligence dossier that alleged Donald Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians.
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Lots of messaging here, because as always, Mueller is working beyond the third dimension.
The attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, worked in London for the prominent New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He was accused of making false statements regarding communications he had with Rick Gates, a longtime associate of Mr. Manafort and a former Trump campaign aide…
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