US President Donald Trump pardons Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who was sentenced to 30 days in prison by special investigator Robert Mueller because of the Russia investigation. On the eve of Christmas, Trump pardoned and waived 15 people, including his former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.
Van der Zwaan was convicted in 2018 for false statements to the federal police service FBI and, in addition to a prison sentence, was also fined $ 20,000 (more than 16,400 euros). He has now served the prison sentence.
Van der Zwaan was the first person to be convicted as part of Mueller’s investigation into possible links between the entourage of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia.
He lied or kept silent about activities in Ukraine and his connections with Rick Gates, according to the American court. Gates was an adviser to Trump who, along with ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, are among the prime suspects.
The now 36-year-old Van der Zwaan is the son-in-law of the Ukrainian-Russian billionaire German Khan.
Also a pardon for former campaign advisor Papadopoulos
George Papadopoulos has also been fully restored from his sentence by Trump. Papadopoulos is a former Trump campaign advisor on foreign diplomacy. He was sentenced to two weeks in prison and two hundred hours of community service in September 2018 after admitting to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia while working for the campaign.
Papadopoulos knew the Russians were holding thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the run for the 2016 presidential election. He lied to the FBI about when he was notified of the emails and where that information came from. .
According to the White House, the pardon decisions help to “correct the injustice Mueller’s team has done to so many people.”
Wave of pardon decisions
On Tuesday evening it was announced that Trump has signed fifteen pardon decisions. Besides Van der Zwaan and Papadopoulos, Duncan Hunter, Chris Collins and Nicolas Slatten are also pardoned. Hunter, a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, was convicted in March of campaign money fraud. Collins, another Republican former MP, pleaded guilty to fraud and perjury last September. Slatten, a mercenary employed by the paramilitary security company Blackwater, was serving a life sentence for his role in a massacre in a square in Baghdad.
Trump has long been expected to pardon his convicted loyalists in his final days in the White House. He recently pardoned former adviser Michael Flynn, who lied to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador, as well as former political employee Roger Stone. He was jailed for lying to Congress, obstructing justice and improperly influencing witnesses.
– .
