By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is urging a judge to impose jail time against Alex van der Zwaan, the first person to be sentenced as part of the probe into Russian interference in the presidential election.
Van der Zwaan, who pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors and the FBI about the Russia probe, faces an estimated zero to six months in jail, according to sentencing guidelines, BuzzFeed News reports.
Mueller’s team didn’t indicate how much time van der Zwaan should be sent to jail, but the attorney is asking for no jail time because his wife, who lives in London is pregnant and due to deliver their child in August.
“To the extent the Court seeks to take into account the circumstances of van der Zwaan’s wife’s pregnancy, consideration of that circumstance would not preclude a term of incarceration,” the special counsel’s office wrote. “In any event, a sentence that ensured van der Zwaan’s return to the United Kingdom for the birth of his child in August 2018 would be within the recommended Guidelines’ range.”
Prosecutors added, ““The defendant was expressly warned by the government that it is a crime to lie to the Special Counsel’s Office, that lying could constitute a federal crime, and that such conduct would carry with it the possibility of going to jail if he were convicted. van der Zwaan stated that he understood. He thereafter deliberately and repeatedly lied.”
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 3.
Four others who have pleaded guilty so far – including former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates, Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos. But their sentencing hearings have been placed on hold while they cooperate with Mueller’s team.
