The New York Times in September detailed how Manafort in 2011 had arranged for Skadden, Arps to prepare a report that was used by associates of Ukraine’s Yanukovych to defend the incarceration of Ukrainian nationalist Tymoshenko.
That story noted that Mueller’s office had asked the law firm for information and documents about its work for the pro-Russia Yanukovych.
And it also pointed out that Skadden, Arps last June had refunded $567,000 to the Ukrainian government, which was around half of what the firm reportedly had been paid for its work.
The Kyiv Post in November published a story revealing that van der Zwaan had traveled to the Ukraine to work on that report.
According to that report, Skadden claimed that the money was being held in “escrow for future work,” though the Post said “the transfer only came after the Ukrainian government sent the U.S. Justice Department a letter requesting the repayment.”
Van der Zwaan’s now-deleted biography on Skadden’s site notes this work for clients including Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice, a Ukrainian billionaire named Gennadiy Bogolyubov, and a firm in the United Kingdom that was involved in a dispute relate to a Ukrainian mine.
Asked about the charges against van der Zwaan, White House spokesman Raj Shah said, “This announcement, along with Friday’s, furthers our point that there’s no evidence of collusion, as the President has long been stating.”
“There’s nothing in this announcement which would alter that,” Shah said.
Asked if the White House is worried about the possibility that Gates would agree to cooperate with Mueller’s probe, Shah said “I have nothing on that.”
