ROBERT Mueller, the special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, has charged a lawyer with making false statements to FBI agents conducting the investigation.

Alex Van Der Zwaan, the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, made the statements in November 2017 when he was interviewed about his work with a law firm hired in 2012 by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice to create a report on Yulia Tymoshenko.

Ms Tymoshenko was the first woman appointed prime minister of Ukraine, court documents say.

According to the Post, Mr Van Der Zwaan “wilfully and knowingly made materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements” about his communications with Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and business partner to Paul Manafort.
The court papers, filed on Friday, say his last contact with Mr Gates came in August 2016 and involved “an innocuous text message.”

He also lied about his contacts with “Person A,” whom he talked with in 2014.

Mr Van Der Zwaan also spoke with Mr Gates and “Person A” about the report in September 2016, but deleted and did not turn over emails about the meeting, the documents say.

Mr Van Der Zwaan, according to his LinkedIn page, works in the London office of prominent New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.

Mr Gates and Mr Manafort, who ran Donald Trump’s campaign for several months in 2016, have been charged by the special prosecutor with laundering millions of dollars they were paid by a Kremlin-connected Ukrainian politician.

Reports say Mr Gates is prepared to plead guilty to fraud-related charges and testify against Mr Manafort, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday.

Mr Van der Zwaan is the Russian-speaking son-in-law of Russian-Ukrainian oligarch German Khan. He is married to the oligarch’s daughter, Eva Khan.

German Khan made his billions through financial and industrial investment group Alfa Group and in oil — as one of the heads of TNK-BP, BP’s Russian joint venture.

Bloomberg puts Mr Khan’s net worth at $9.7 billion.

The Telegraph quoted Khan as referring to the mafia-themed film The Godfather as a manual for life and that he watches the movie every few months.

Mr Van Der Zwaan was charged with criminal information and has a court appearance today.

US president Donald Trump claimed today that he has been “much tougher” on Russia than he has on the Obama administration, sending out an angry tweet in response to media reports that he is the lowest-ranking US president ever, and seems reluctant to punish Russia for election meddling.