Special counsel alleges Alex Van Der Zwaan misled officials about his contact with Gates
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed a criminal case against an associate of Richard Gates, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, accusing the associate of lying to the FBI, according to court documents unveiled Tuesday.
The associate, Alex Van Der Zwaan, is expected to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon, according to the court docket.
.. Mr. Van Der Zwaan lied in an interview with the special counsel’s office in November 2017 about his 2012 work for the Ukrainian government, according to the criminal-information document.
Whatever Trump Is Hiding Is Hurting All of Us Now
Our democracy is in serious danger.
President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy.
.. either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.
.. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution.
.. Yes, the F.B.I. made a mistake in Florida. But it acted heroically on Russia. What is more basic than protecting American democracy?
.. We should be using our cyber-capabilities to spread the truth about Putin —just how much money he has stolen, just how many lies he has spread, just how many rivals he has jailed or made disappear — all to weaken his autocracy
.. My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump, Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president.
Chaffetz on DOJ’s Indictment of 13 Russians: ‘Mitt Romney Was Right in 2012’
Following the indictment of 13 Russians for interfering in the 2016 election, Jason Chaffetz said Mitt Romney’s famous 2012 warning is being proven right.
Romney said in a 2012 presidential debate on foreign policy Moscow is the greatest geopolitical threat to the U.S. He was subsequently mocked by then-President Barack Obama, who said the “1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”
Chaffetz, a Fox News contributor and former Utah congressman, noted that the indictment alleges that the Russians continued their activities after the election.
“I do think it dismantles the Democrats’ narrative that this was all about Trump. It’s all about the United States of America and sowing discord,” Chaffetz said on “Outnumbered Overtime.”
Indictment reveals Russians also organized anti-Trump rallies after election
“After the election, the defendants allegedly staged rallies to support the president-elect while simultaneously staging rallies to protest his election,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a Friday press conference.
“For example, the defendants organized one rally to support the president-elect and another rally to oppose him, both in New York on the same day,” he said.
Friday’s indictment filing – signed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – says the defendants organized a Nov. 12 “Trump is NOT my President” rally in New York.
.. The indictment also revealed that the Russians organized a “Charlotte Against Trump” rally in North Carolina on Nov. 19.
The November rallies are the only anti-Trump events that the indictment links to these Russian actors. It does not draw any connections to the widespread anti-Trump protests that were organized after his inauguration.
.. Their “strategic goal” was to “sow discord in the U.S. political system,” the indictment said.
.. in order to conceal that they were based in Russia, the Russians would pretend to be American grassroots activists who were located in the U.S. but unable to meet in person.
.. The 13 Russians charged are:
- Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin;
- Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov;
- Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik;
- Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova;
- Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva;
- Sergey Pavlovich Polozov;
- Maria Anatolyrvna Bovda;
- Robert Sergetevich Bovda;
- Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly;
- Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev;
- Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko;
- Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina and
- Vladimir Venkov