Mr. van der Zwaan’s lies involved a 2012 report prepared by Skadden and used to defend Mr. Yanukovych, then the Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, from international criticism over the prosecution and incarceration of one of his political rivals, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko. State Department officials criticized the report, which purported to be the result of the law firm’s independent research, as a misleading account of the actions of Mr. Yanukovych’s government.

Mr. Mueller’s team scrutinized the report as part of its examination of the business dealings of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates in Ukraine, where Mr. Manafort worked for about a decade as a political consultant before he joined the Trump campaign. Among other charges, both men have been accused of “using one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly” for the report. It is unclear how much, if any, of that money went to Skadden or other firms with which they worked.

The Ukrainian authorities had begun their own investigation into payments for the report after Mr. Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia amid a popular uprising in 2014.

Mr. van der Zwaan told the special counsel on Nov. 3 that he had not spoken to Mr. Gates since mid-August 2016, even though Mr. Gates had called him the following month instructing him to get in contact with an unidentified mutual acquaintance, court papers show.

He also told prosecutors that he had not talked to that same acquaintance since 2014, even though he called that person in September 2016 to discuss possible criminal charges against Mr. Manafort, a law firm and a former Ukrainian justice minister. The phone conversation, conducted in Russian, was important enough that Mr. van der Zwaan recorded it, according to court papers. Mr. van der Zwaan followed up by calling Mr. Gates, recording that conversation as well.

One of those conversations involved payments that were described as “the tip of the iceberg,” Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor in Mr. Mueller’s office, said in court. He did not elaborate.

Mr. van der Zwaan also acknowledged that he lied when he told investigators that he had only a “passive role in the rollout of the report,” according to court papers. In fact, prosecutors said, he had discussed with Mr. Gates and others how to publicize the report to make it appear less damning to Mr. Yanukovych’s government, including describing any mishandling of Ms. Tymoshenko’s prosecution as no more than “procedural” errors. Part of the strategy, Mr. Weissmann said in court, was to give an advance copy of the report to The New York Times.

</s>The US special counsel investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has charged a lawyer with lying about his communications with Rick Gates, a former aide to Donald Trump's campaign.

Special counsel Robert Mueller unsealed criminal charges on Tuesday against Alex van der Zwaan for allegedly lying to the FBI last November about work his law firm performed in 2012 related to Ukraine.

The charge puts pressure on Mr Gates and Mr Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who are both facing criminal charges including conspiracy to launder money and failure to register as foreign agents in connection with their political work for a pro-Russia Ukrainian party.

They have pleaded not guilty.

A trial is tentatively expected later this year, though recent media reports have said that Mr Gates is expected to plead guilty in the near future.

Mr Mueller is investigating whether Moscow meddled in the 2016 election and colluded with Mr Trump's campaign.

Mr Trump says there was no collusion and Russia denies interfering with the election.

The charging documents released on Tuesday said Mr van der Zwaan made false statements about the last time he communicated with Mr Gates and another unnamed person, only identified as "Person A".

In truth, the charge alleges, he spoke with Mr Gates and Person A in September 2016 about the report, and "surreptitiously recorded the calls".

He also allegedly told investigators he did not know why an email between him and Person A was not produced to the special counsel's office, but had actually deleted or failed to produce emails that were being sought.

Mr van der Zwaan was to appear in court on Tuesday where he is expected to plead guilty. Lawyers representing Mr van der Zwaan could not be reached for comment.

"He is pleading to false statements, which is a relatively small charge. My guess is he is cooperating," said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The case underscores the extent of Mr Mueller's probe and of his interpretation of how far he can investigate as he looks into whether Russia tried to influence the election in favour of Mr Trump by hacking the emails of leading Democrats and distributing disinformation and propaganda online.

Mr Manafort has argued the charges against him fall outside of Mr Mueller's jurisdiction, because they have nothing to do with Mr Trump's election.

Under pressure from the US Justice Department, Mr Manafort and Mr Gates retroactively registered as foreign agents for their lobbying and public relations work for Ukraine's former pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych.

Their lobbying firm received $US17.1 million ($21.7 million) for that work, filings with the Justice Department show.

The latest court papers do not name the law firm that Mr van der Zwaan worked for, though a 2012 report on former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko that it cited was penned by the prominent international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

A spokeswoman for the firm said it had terminated Mr van der Zwaan's employment in 2017 and "has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter".

Mr van der Zwaan's father-in-law is Russian billionaire German Khan, the founder of the privately owned Alfa Bank.

Mr Khan was recently named on a list of Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin that was released by the US Treasury Department.</s>An attorney linked to a former Trump campaign official admitted Tuesday he lied to federal investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller.

Alex van der Zwaan, who worked at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom until he was fired last year, appeared at the federal courthouse in Washington where he formally pleaded guilty to a single charge of making false statements.

The charge does not involve election meddling or relate to the Trump campaign's operations. It stems from a part of the special counsel's investigation into Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chair, and Rick Gates, a former campaign aide and longtime business associate of Manafort.

Manafort and Gates are accused of directing a covert Washington lobbying campaign on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests. The lobbying effort was part of political consulting work that Manafort and Gates carried out before they joined the Trump campaign.

Gates and Manafort were indicted last year and accused of conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned from political consulting work in Ukraine. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Van der Zwaan is accused of lying to investigators about his interactions with Gates during an interview with the FBI late last year, according to court papers.

Van der Zwaan's plea comes on the heels of an extraordinary indictment from Mueller last week that charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a hidden social media effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and boosting the chances of Trump.

According to the court filing, prosecutors say van der Zwaan lied about his role in the production of a report on the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She is a political foe of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose political party was a client of Gates and Manafort.

Van der Zwaan is accused of lying during an interview with prosecutors and FBI agents on Nov. 3, 2017, about the timing of his last communication with Gates and an unidentified person described as "Person A."

Van der Zwaan told investigators that he last texted with Gates in mid-August 2016 and his last contact with Person A was in 2014 when he discussed the person's family. But prosecutors say that wasn't true.

In fact, they say he had discussed the Tymoshenko report with Gates and Person A in September 2016 during a phone call that he surreptitiously recorded. They also say Van der Zwaan deleted emails sought by the special counsel's office, including one between him and Person A from September 2016.

The Tymoshenko report was cited in the 12-count indictment against Manafort and Gates. It accuses the two men of acting as unregistered lobbyists in connection with the rollout of the report, which was commissioned by the Ukrainian government. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates "used one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly for the report."

The report was authored by the law firm, Skadden, Arps. Van der Zwaan's now-defunct LinkedIn page lists him as an associate in the London office of the law firm.

On Tuesday, Skadden Arps released a statement saying it had fired van der Zwaan last year. The firm said it "has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter."

It did not say what led to the firing. The charging document notes that the emails van der Zwaan is accused of deleting and withholding from the special counsel's office were also sought by the law firm, which is referred to as "Law Firm A."

Last year, van der Zwaan married the daughter of Ukrainian-Russian billionaire German Khan, according to the Russian editions of Forbes and Tatler magazines.

The lavish wedding to Khan's daughter, Eva, was held at Luton Hoo, a historic mansion-turned golf hotel outside London. The three-day event included a Russian party complete with a Cossack choir and guests dressed in Russian folk costumes, according to the magazines.

Khan, who was born in Kiev, shares control of one of Russia's biggest financial and industrial investment conglomerate, Alfa Group, with fellow billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Alexei Kuzmichev.

Khan and his partners are suing Buzzfeed News over its publication of a dossier of allegations about ties between Trump and Russia. The dossier, which is a collection of memoranda authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, makes several claims about Alfa Group that the partners say are false and defamatory.

Buzzfeed is fighting the lawsuit. The dossier has become a political lightning rod because Steele's work was funded in part by Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Parts of Steele's work were also used in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser.

Associated Press writers Jeff Horwitz and Desmond Butler in Washington and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.</s>Alex Van Der Zwaan — a Ukraine-connected attorney with ties to former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates — has pleaded guilty to a charge of making false statements to the FBI, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office announced Tuesday.

According to the two-page indictment, Van Der Zwaan lied to authorities about his last contact with Gates and someone identified as Person A. Prosecutors also allege that the lawyer “deleted and otherwise did not produce” emails the special counsel’s office had requested, including an email between him and Person A in September 2016. Additionally, according to court documents, the special counsel’s office concludes that he misrepresented his involvement in an international law firm’s report on former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2012.

He made the false statements in November of last year, according to the indictment.

Van Der Zwaan is now the latest figure to be ensnared by Mueller, whose investigation into Russia’s 2016 interference in the United States presidential election has intensified in recent days — and increasingly faced pushback from President Donald Trump and his allies.

On Friday, Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities for meddling with the intent of sowing “discord in the U.S. political system” by “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (‘Trump campaign’) and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”

Trump initially said the announcement cleared him and his campaign of wrongdoing — which is not true — before spending the weekend lashing out at investigators, whom he accused of helping the Russians “create discord, disruption and chaos” within the U.S.

“They are laughing their asses off in Moscow,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Get smart America!”

He also drew heavy scrutiny for suggesting in a tweet that the FBI was too preoccupied with the Russia investigation to prevent the shooting at a Florida high school on Wednesday that left 17 dead and more than a dozen others wounded.

The guilty plea by Van Der Zwaan comes amid reports that Gates, a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is nearing a plea deal with Mueller.

Both Gates and Manafort were indicted by the special counsel in October.

Gates served as Manafort’s deputy on the Trump campaign, worked on the president’s inaugural committee and remained in contact with the White House in 2017 as he helmed the pro-Trump America First Policies nonprofit.

The White House has previously downplayed the problems Gates could pose to Trump if he flips.

The indictment against Van Der Zwaan, which name-drops Gates, may suggest that the reports are correct and the former Trump aide is cooperating with the special counsel.

He would become the third known Trump official to cooperate with Mueller, joining former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Each has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over their Russia contacts in 2016.

The charges against Van Der Zwaan were announced Tuesday morning. He entered his guilty plea Tuesday afternoon.

Feb. 20, 2017, 5:13 p.m.: This story has been updated.</s>WASHINGTON >> The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election has charged an attorney with lying to federal investigators about his interactions with a former Trump campaign official, according to court papers made public Tuesday.

Alex van der Zwaan, who worked at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom until he was fired last year, was to appear in court later Tuesday at a plea hearing.

The charge does not involve election meddling or relate to the Trump campaign’s operations. It stems from a part of the special counsel’s investigation into Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, and Rick Gates, a former campaign aide and longtime business associate of Manafort.

Manafort and Gates are accused of directing a covert Washington lobbying campaign on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests. The lobbying effort was part of political consulting work that Manafort and Gates carried out before they joined the Trump campaign.

Gates and Manafort were indicted last year and accused of conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned from political consulting work in Ukraine. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Van der Zwaan is accused of lying to investigators about his interactions with Gates during an interview with the FBI late last year, according to the charging document filed in federal court in Washington.

His plea hearing Tuesday comes on the heels of an extraordinary indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller last week that charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a hidden social media effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and boosting the chances of Trump.

According to the court filing, prosecutors say van der Zwaan lied about his role in the production of a report on the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She is a political foe of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose political party was a client of Gates and Manafort.

Van der Zwaan is accused of lying during an interview with prosecutors and FBI agents on Nov. 3, 2017, about the timing of his last communication with Gates and an unidentified person described as “Person A.”

Van der Zwaan told investigators that he last texted with Gates in mid-August 2016 and his last contact with Person A was in 2014 when he discussed the person’s family. But prosecutors say that wasn’t true.

In fact, they say he had discussed the Tymoshenko report with Gates and Person A in September 2016 during a phone call that he surreptitiously recorded. They also say Van der Zwaan deleted emails sought by the special counsel’s office including one between him and Person A from September 2016.

The Tymoshenko report was cited in the 12-count indictment against Manafort and Gates. It accuses the two men of acting as unregistered lobbyists in connection with the rollout of the report, which was commissioned by the Ukrainian government. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates “used one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly for the report.”

The report was authored by the law firm, Skadden, Arps. Van der Zwaan’s now-defunct LinkedIn page lists him as an associate in the London office of the law firm.

On Tuesday, Skadden Arps released a statement saying it had fired van der Zwaan last year. The firm said it “has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter.”

It did not say what led to the firing. The charging document notes that the emails van der Zwaan is accused of deleting and withholding from the special counsel’s office were also sought by the law firm, which is referred to as “Law Firm A.”

Associated Press writers Jeff Horwitz and Desmond Butler contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON >> The special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election has charged an attorney with lying to federal investigators about his interactions with a former Trump campaign official, according to court papers made public Tuesday.

Alex van der Zwaan, who worked at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom until he was fired last year, was to appear in court later Tuesday at a plea hearing.

The charge does not involve election meddling or relate to the Trump campaign’s operations. It stems from a part of the special counsel’s investigation into Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, and Rick Gates, a former campaign aide and longtime business associate of Manafort.

Manafort and Gates are accused of directing a covert Washington lobbying campaign on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests. The lobbying effort was part of political consulting work that Manafort and Gates carried out before they joined the Trump campaign.

Gates and Manafort were indicted last year and accused of conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned from political consulting work in Ukraine. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Van der Zwaan is accused of lying to investigators about his interactions with Gates during an interview with the FBI late last year, according to the charging document filed in federal court in Washington.

His plea hearing Tuesday comes on the heels of an extraordinary indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller last week that charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a hidden social media effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and boosting the chances of Trump.

According to the court filing, prosecutors say van der Zwaan lied about his role in the production of a report on the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She is a political foe of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose political party was a client of Gates and Manafort.

Van der Zwaan is accused of lying during an interview with prosecutors and FBI agents on Nov. 3, 2017, about the timing of his last communication with Gates and an unidentified person described as “Person A.”

Van der Zwaan told investigators that he last texted with Gates in mid-August 2016 and his last contact with Person A was in 2014 when he discussed the person’s family. But prosecutors say that wasn’t true.

In fact, they say he had discussed the Tymoshenko report with Gates and Person A in September 2016 during a phone call that he surreptitiously recorded. They also say Van der Zwaan deleted emails sought by the special counsel’s office including one between him and Person A from September 2016.

The Tymoshenko report was cited in the 12-count indictment against Manafort and Gates. It accuses the two men of acting as unregistered lobbyists in connection with the rollout of the report, which was commissioned by the Ukrainian government. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates “used one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly for the report.”

The report was authored by the law firm, Skadden, Arps. Van der Zwaan’s now-defunct LinkedIn page lists him as an associate in the London office of the law firm.

On Tuesday, Skadden Arps released a statement saying it had fired van der Zwaan last year. The firm said it “has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter.”

It did not say what led to the firing. The charging document notes that the emails van der Zwaan is accused of deleting and withholding from the special counsel’s office were also sought by the law firm, which is referred to as “Law Firm A.”

Associated Press writers Jeff Horwitz and Desmond Butler contributed to this report.</s>"On November 3, 2017, the defendant Alex van der Zwaan, did willfully and knowingly make materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations… to the Special Counsel's Office, including Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in Washington, D.C., in the course of answering questions concerning his work as an attorney employed by a law firm engaged in 2012 by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice to prepare a report on the trial of Yulia Tymshenko," the document said.

The US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has accused a lawyer of lying to investigators about his interactions with Rick Gates, a partner of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who also has been charged in the Russia probe. Mueller has sued Gates on 12 counts, including money laundering and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for his work for the Ukrainian government.

The document with charges against Alex Van der Zwaan also accuses him of deleting or otherwise not sending emails requested by the Special Counsel's office, which is conducting an investigation into possible ties between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

READ MORE: Kremlin on Mueller Report: Accusations of Russia's Election Meddling Baseless

The charged have been declared while president Donald Trump was accusing his predecessor of being too soft on Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion with the Trump campaign, as well as meddling in the US elections. Russian officials have called the accusations groundless and invented to deflect opinion from actual election fraud as well as other pressing issues.

The Trump administration has called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt" and emphasized that there was no communication between campaign associates and Russian officials.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) – An attorney for a prominent law firm is pleading guilty to lying to federal authorities about his interactions with a former Trump campaign associate.

Alex van der Zwaan is entering the plea in federal court in Washington where he is admitting to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about his interactions with Rick Gates. Gates is a former aide on President Donald Trump’s campaign and a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The charge against van der Zwaan does not involve election meddling or the Trump campaign’s operations. It stems from the special counsel’s investigation into a covert Washington lobbying campaign Manafort and Gates are accused of directing on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests.

Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty.</s>The special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election has charged an attorney with making a false statement when he was interviewed about work he did with a Trump campaign adviser six years ago.

The attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, who worked in London for the prominent New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, was expected to appear in court on Tuesday. He is accused of making false statements regarding communications he had with Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign aide, about work done in Ukraine, according to a document filed in court on Friday.

Gates was a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, and followed him onto the campaign. Both have been charged by the special counsel with money laundering and violations of tax and lobbying laws and have pleaded not guilty. Manafort was not mentioned in the court document about Van der Zwaan.

Manafort’s relationship with Skadden dates to years before his work on the Trump campaign. He enlisted the firm in his effort to shield a client, Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russia president of Ukraine, from international condemnation.

Manafort asked Skadden to draft a report that would help counter accusations that Yanukovych’s government had prosecuted and convicted the former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, on corruption charges in 2011 for political reasons and without sufficient evidence.

Ukraine’s top prosecutor asked the Department of Justice last year or earlier for help in questioning eight lawyers who the Ukrainians believed were involved in Skadden’s work, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times. Van der Zwaan’s name was on the list, though it is unclear what role he played in crafting the report.

Also on the list was Skadden’s lead lawyer on the report, Gregory B. Craig, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, as well as Clifford M. Sloan, who also worked in the Obama administration.

In a statement, Skadden said: “The firm terminated its employment of Alex van der Zwaan in 2017 and has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter.” Craig and Sloan both declined to comment.

The request by the Ukrainian prosecutor was made as part of a criminal corruption investigation into the government of Yanukovych. The Ukrainian general prosecutor alleged that his government circumvented contracting rules by initially agreeing to pay Skadden a fee that was less than the threshold for competitive bidding — reportedly about $12,000 — then later paying the firm a total of nearly $1.1 million.

In court documents in that case, Manafort, whose work as a political consultant is at the heart of the special counsel’s case against him, is identified as having facilitated the contract for the U.S. law firm.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the Russia probe (all times local):

An attorney for a prominent law firm is pleading guilty to lying to federal authorities about his interactions with a former Trump campaign associate.

Alex van der Zwaan is entering the plea in federal court in Washington where he is admitting to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators about his interactions with Rick Gates. Gates is a former aide on President Donald Trump's campaign and a longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The charge against van der Zwaan does not involve election meddling or the Trump campaign's operations. It stems from the special counsel's investigation into a covert Washington lobbying campaign Manafort and Gates are accused of directing on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests.

Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty.

The law firm where a lawyer charged by special counsel Robert Mueller used to work says it fired him last year and has been cooperating with authorities.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP issued a statement Tuesday after news broke that Alex van der Zwaan had been charged with lying to investigators.

A charging document filed in federal court in Washington accuses van der Zwaan of lying to investigators about his interactions with Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign official.

Gates was indicted last year along with Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's campaign chairman, on charges of conspiracy to launder money and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors have filed a new charge against a lawyer they say lied to federal investigators in the Russia probe.

A charging document filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday accuses Alex van der Zwaan of one charge of making false statements. The information was filed ahead of a plea hearing scheduled for later Tuesday.

The court filing says that van der Zwaan lied to investigators about his interactions with Rick Gates. Gates, a former Trump campaign aide, was indicted last year on charges of conspiracy to launder money and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

Mueller is investigating Russian election interference and links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

President Donald Trump is again accusing his predecessor of not doing enough to prevent Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump tweets that's because President Barack Obama "thought Crooked Hillary was going to win and he didn't want to 'rock the boat.'" But Trump says when he won "the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems."

Trump's tweet Tuesday included a quote from Obama saying in October 2016 that "there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections." Obama was addressing Trump's claims of voter fraud, not Russia's attempt to influence voters on social media.

Obama has defended his response to Russian meddling, saying he had told the Russian president to "cut it out."

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Attorney Alex van der Zwaan pleads guilty in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to making false statements to the FBI during the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Specifically, the charges are that he lied to investigators about his interactions with political consultant and lobbyist Rick Gates and an unidentified Ukrainian-based associate of Paul Manafort.