Mueller's case is in the details and 45*'s 'no collusion' claim in #TrumpRussia is as thin as a combover as Alex Van Der Zwann is sentenced for lying to the Feds.
the early days have the first sentencing being the result of being jammed up with lying ostensibly about taping a conversation among other things including evidence tampering
Van Der Zwann was charged with giving a false statement which involved the revelation of a former GRU intelligence officer having ties to Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. The identity of that officer (Person A) is still not official, but multiple sources have suggested that it may be Konstantin Kilimnik.
The sentencing document for Van Der Zwann is useful in identifying one relationship of Russian military intelligence (GRU) to the Trump presidential campaign.
Mueller’s investigation has been systematic in keeping the probe moving forward from ancillary defendants up though the chain of authority.
…the first defendant in Mueller's probe to face sentencing, on April 3.
….when Mueller's office asked about his interactions with Gates and the other person, he lied because he feared his firm might fire him for recording the call, according to the memo.
Mueller's office says FBI agents determined that a person who worked with Manafort and Gates "has ties to a Russian intelligence service." He told Van Der Zwaan that he was a former GRU intelligence officer.
In February 2018, Van der Zwaan was charged with lying to the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators about his interactions with political consultant and lobbyist Rick Gates and an unidentified Ukrainian-based long-term associate of Paul Manafort.[11][6][12] On February 20, 2018, he pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to investigators.[6][2][13][7] He faces a sentence of up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.[14] The FBI is holding his passport while he is ordered to remain in Washington, DC awaiting his sentencing.[14]
Complete Sentencing Document
Person A is apparently Konstantin Kilimnik, and does provide an explanation for the 2016 exit of Manafort as Trump campaign manager to be replaced by Steve Bannon, particularly with the continued communication of Gates and Klimnik.
(2016) ...Now we have learned that, during his years in Kyiv, Manafort’s translator and sidekick was Konstantin Kilimnik, who had spent several years with Russian military intelligence or GRU. Although Kilimnik made no effort to hide his Kremlin affiliation, he and Manafort became fast friends.
To anybody familiar with Russian intelligence, Kilimnik was very likely Manafort’s spy-handler. At best, he was an access agent for GRU, assessing the American for possible espionage. “There are no former intelligence officers,” as Vladimir Putin has stated, and one can only imagine the glee in Moscow when Manafort was appointed Trump’s campaign manager.
That role has ended with Manafort’s resignation. A shake-up this week reduced the seasoned fixer’s role as Trump tried to re-brand his damaged campaign to take on Hillary Clinton in early November.
The exposure of Manafort’s long relationship with GRU was the final straw. Even Trump, for all his overt “bromance” with Putin, could not be seen to have such an obvious Kremlin proxy heading his campaign for the White House.
committee.com/...
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.