AP Photo/Susan Walsh Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates is now cooperating with the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
- New court documents filed Tuesday night directly connect former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates to an operative with ties to Russia's military intelligence unit.
- Gates was aware of the operative's links to Russian intelligence, the documents say.
- The identity of the individual is unclear, but the description bears similarities to Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate of Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
- Manafort has pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges related to tax and bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy against the US.
- Gates pleaded guilty last month and is now cooperating with the special counsel Robert Mueller.
Rick Gates, the former deputy chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign, was aware that he was communicating with someone linked to Russian intelligence during the 2016 US election, new court filings show.
The special counsel Robert Mueller's office revealed the information late Tuesday in documents related to the upcoming sentencing of Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan.
Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty last month to one count of making false statements to investigators in the Russia investigation, which is examining the extent of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to sway the race in Trump's favor.
In a separate memorandum filed Tuesday evening, Van der Zwaan requested a lenient sentence. Instead of jail time, he's asking the judge whether he can pay an "appropriate fine" as penance, according to the document.
Mueller's office did not make a judgment on what van der Zwaan's sentence should be, but pointed out his experience as a longtime lawyer and the fact that he lied to them after Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were indicted in the Russia probe.
Van der Zwaan is accused of lying to investigators about why he did not provide Mueller's office with a September 2016 email between him and another person referred to in February's charge as "Person A."
The court filing says Van der Zwaan not only spoke with both Gates and the unnamed person about a report about a controversial Ukrainian politician's trial but also destroyed evidence that Mueller's office was seeking, including the September 2016 email.
Tuesday's filing from Mueller's office says the fact that "Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation."
It added that federal investigators have assessed that Person A is directly tied to Russian intelligence "and had such ties in 2016."
The filing continued: "During his first interview with the Special Counsel's Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU," Russia's military intelligence unit.
Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Department of Justice, cautioned against painting with too broad a brush on who Person A is.
But he added that it's "safe to say ... Robert Mueller is not prone to exaggeration, so they probably have this tightly tied down."
"The relevant questions now - beyond how it may impact the van der Zwaan sentencing - are: whether Gates related this connection to anyone else relevant in the Trump orbit; did that person lie to OSC about the issue; did the Trump campaign get anything of value from the Russians; and similar inquiries."
Who is 'Person A'?
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The identity of Person A is unclear.
But the documents say the individual is an associate of Manafort's, and the description bears similarities to Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian operative with long suspected ties to Russian intelligence.
Mueller's office accused Manafort in December of working with Kilimnik to help ghostwrite an op-ed last year about his consulting work in Ukraine. That article landed Manafort in hot water with prosecutors and the judge presiding over the federal criminal case against him.
The op-ed sought to positively portray the Ukrainian government's work when it was under the leadership of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and pro-Russian strongman whom Manafort is widely credited with helping to win the country's election in 2010.
Oleg Voloshyn, the former spokesman for Ukraine's ministry of foreign affairs under Yanukovych, told Bloomberg last year that he wrote the op-ed and sent a draft to Kilimnik in early December. He added that Kilimnik forwarded it to Manafort, who "advised me to add that the Yanukovych government also worked actively with the US on nuclear disarmament and with NATO."
The op-ed was submitted to the Kyiv Post, an English-language Ukrainian media outlet, which declined to publish it. Brian Bonner, the editor, told Bloomberg the op-ed was "highly suspicious" and "blatantly pro-Manafort."
Last October, The Atlantic also published several emails that appeared to show Manafort using his elevated role in the Trump campaign to work with Kilimnik in resolving a financial dispute with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Mueller's latest court filing - and more that come out of Van der Zwaan's case - could shed light on whether Person A was Kilimnik, and whether Manafort, as one of the highest-ranking members of the Trump campaign, knew that Person A was tied to Russian intelligence.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges brought against him, including tax and bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy against the US.
Gates pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and making false statements to the FBI. He is now cooperating with Mueller's office.