A Dutch lawyer tied to former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates who admitted to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller's team was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.
Alex van der Zwaan is the first person to be sentenced in Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
He pleaded guilty to lying to Mueller's team in February and faced up to six months in prison.
Earlier Tuesday, Van der Zwaan's attorneys begged for no jail time for their client, who mostly sat with pursed lips, slouched at the defense table.
He did say a few sentences of contrition that he read from a paper.
"What I did was wrong," he uttered. He also apologized.
Van der Zwaan covered up his discussions with Gates and a business associate based in Ukraine in September 2016, while the Trump campaign operation was in full swing. He also admitted to lying to investigators about his failure to turn over email communications to the special counsel's office and to his law firm as it cooperated with Mueller on its investigation of Gates' and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's foreign lobbying.
This is the FIRST guy to be sentenced, but I am guessing he is far from the LAST guy to be sentenced.
I wonder who else might soon be a bunk mate of his?
He got off far too easily, imho.
ReplyDeleteHe'll probably never see the inside of a cell.
DeleteI think for non-violent crimes, they should have to pay huge crimes and pick up trash.
That was my thought. He should have been given 30 days for each offense and given the 6-month maximum, if necessary. Also, increased fines. This was just a slap on the wrist.
Deletehttp://worldchannel.org/programs/episode/arf-s6-606-milwaukee-53206/
Delete"MILWAUKEE 53206 introduces viewers to a community with the highest rate of incarcerated African American men in the U.S.
Viewers meet Beverly Walker and her husband, Baron, who is in prison and caught between changing parole laws. Beverly tirelessly advocates for his release and keeps their family together. Chad Wilson, once a drug dealer, served a total of 17 years in the criminal justice system. Five weeks after his release, he hopes to turn his life around and get at least some of his record expunged. Dennis Walton has one goal in life: that his children love him as much as he loved his dad. Yet, as a teenager he took a wrong turn and found himself in jail. He finds atonement by giving back and establishing the Fatherhood Project to offer support to men seeking re-entry.
Caught in a web of imperfect laws, poverty and unemployment, MILWAUKEE 53206 renders a portrait of citizens often dehumanized in the media and illuminates, beyond headlines, the decimating toll and trauma families of color face as a result of the mass incarceration of African American men"...
5-10-15 years...
Definitely got off easy. First, he's ruch, so 20k is a traffic ticket. And he'll spend thaose 30 days in a "white collar" prison, that probably doesn't even have a fence around it and may even allow him to go out during the day. meaningless. meanwhile, a kid with a bag of weed can get YEARS.
Delete@7:59am You got that Right
DeleteFOR: a dime bag for self con·sump·tion
He's rich only because of his father-in-law.
DeleteI like the picking up the trash idea,how about making them work for humanity building houses!
DeleteHe is now a felon - cannot practice law as he has lost his license to practice. I'd say he got what he deserved.
ReplyDeleteSays who? He may have lost his ability to practice law in this country but who knows about the laws in other countries. He could go back to the UK or the Netherlands and still practice.
DeleteHe didn't get what he deserved. 30 days versus 6 months?
He got a slap on the wrist. And it won't deter any future defendants from lying to Mueller if that's all they'll get.
Mueller offered him a deal. Just remember that Mueller knows what he's doing, and go with it instead of thinking someone got off too easily.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot going on behind the scenes.
Archie Butt
Rachel Maddow read the judge's statement and was it harsh! It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteWp? "“anarchist extremists,”
ReplyDeleteeven if they have nothing to do with the movement, Department of Homeland Security documents show."
"The DHS’ inclusion of generalized behavior is “troubling and consistent with what we’ve seen of the FBI targeting and surveilling environmentalists, civil rights activists, and lumping them together based on a few incidents,”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/wearing-black-feds-say-you-may-be-an-anarchist-newly-released-documents-show
Black shirts have always been a symbol, notwithstanding that the Trump administration is universally lazy, incompetent and hateful.
DeleteOT: "Rebecca Dallet trounced Michael Screnock on Tuesday for a seat on the state Supreme Court, shrinking the court's conservative majority and giving Democrats a jolt of energy heading into the fall election.
ReplyDeleteIt marked the first time in 23 years that a liberal candidate who wasn't an incumbent won a seat on the high court."
"Scott Walker and Lyin' Paul Ryan better start packing their bags NOW." WInning in WI
https://crooksandliars.com/2018/04/blue-wave-sweeps-through-wisconsin-again
I hope so. What the rethugs are doing to this country makes me shudder. How long will it takes us to recover If we ever do.
DeleteI hope this little prick has passport and visa issues or knockbacks at every border for the rest of his life because of his criminal record.
ReplyDelete