First Russia probe sentencing means its Mueller time
They spent 11 months digging into allegations of collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice, money laundering and assorted other misdeeds.
And now comes Mueller time.
The special counsel had already racked up guilty pleas from top advisers to President Trump and indictments of Russian trolls and the president’s former campaign chairman. But events of this week show that Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, long a theoretical threat to the Trump presidency, is getting real, and possibly more visible.
On Monday night, court filings by Mueller’s team indicated that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had authorized Mueller last summer to investigate whether Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, “committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials” over the 2016 election.
On Tuesday night, The Washington Post reported that Mueller informed Trump’s lawyers last month that while he is not a criminal target, he is a subject of the investigation, which means his conduct is being examined.
In between, on Tuesday morning, a young Dutchman entered the federal courthouse on Third Street NW and earned the dubious distinction of being the first person to be sent to prison in the Mueller probe.
Alex van der Zwaan, son-in-law of a Russian oligarch, business associate of Manafort and soon-to-be-sentenced felon, stepped from a Cadillac Escalade and into a multilingual pack of 18 cameras and activist Bill Christeson, who shouted, “Lock him up!”
“Charming guy,” the defendant said with a smile and slight accent as he joined his friends in the court’s security line.
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