'Toontime: Saving Mr. Yuge for Last

credit: Jim Darkow, Columbia Missourian
Wackydoodle sez:  An' better knots too!

We learned this week from a sentencing of Russian-American lawyer Alex van der Zwann that Trump's former campaign official Rick Gates had ties to a known Russian agent while he worked on the political campaign. Gates worked for Paul Manafort who had a contract to lobby for the Ukrainian government. The allegation was made in a the government's brief supporting sentencing of van der Zwann, formerly a young attorney at prominent DC law firm, Skadden Arps, who pleaded guilty to lying to government investigators. {21.02.18}

van der Zwann faces possible incarceration up to a maximum of five years for his felony offense.  His attorneys asked that Zwann, who is married to the daughter of a Russian oligarch, German Khan, who co-founded the financial group Alpha Bank, only be fined $250,000. Whether he goes to jail or not, he almost certainly will loose his license to practice law, and his former life as a high-powered DC attorney is practically over.  His wife is in London where she is expecting to give birth to their first child.

Like any good prosecutor Mueller is taking down the small fry first to get "just the facts" before he interviews the man at the center of the Russian Connection. If Hair Further is egomaniac enough to answer questions under oath, he better be very, very careful.

credit: Bill Shorr