The real reason Robert Mueller indicted Trump-Russia attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan today

| 3:49 pm EST February 20, 2018
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s week of surprising moves has taken an even more unexpected turn today with the announcement that attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan has been charged with misleading federal investigators and is apparently pleading guilty. It’s not difficult to figure out how Mueller’s investigation found its way to Van Der Zwaan, as he’s connected to Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates, who is preparing to plead guilty this week himself. The big question here is why Mueller cares about this attorney, and what’s likely to come as a result of Van Der Zwann’s plea deal.

Various pundits have made various connections between Alex Van Der Zwaan and the Trump-Russia scandal. His father-in-law is a Russian oligarch and the head of Alfa Bank, which has been alleged (but not proven) to have been a conduit between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. His co-worker is Andrea Manafort, the daughter of Gates’ longtime business partner Paul Manafort, though Andrea is not known to have committed any crime.

So is Mueller using Van Der Zwaan to try to force Alfa Bank to cooperate with the investigation? Is Mueller targeting Manafort’s daughter on something we don’t know about, in the hope of forcing Manafort to flip? That strategy worked with Michael Flynn and his son. There’s also another, perhaps more straightforward reason why Mueller charged Alex Van Der Zwaan: he’s guilty. This guy illegally tried to obstruct the Trump-Russia investigation by lying about withholding evidence.

If Robert Mueller is making an example out of this guy, it sends a powerful message to everyone else being scrutinized in the investigation: cooperate or else. It also sends a more dire signal specifically to those who have already illegally tried to obstruct the investigation: come in and cut a plea deal now, while you still can. Keep in mind that Mueller’s real goal is to acquire evidence that leads back to Donald Trump.