did you have a square marked alex vanderswan? is there a single person on earth that had alex vanderswan as the next best guess for the robert mueller case? anybody telling you they know what the special counsel will do next and anybody that tells you they can see how the russia scandal will end for the white house and president, that person is taking you for a ride after the 13 russians get indicted on friday and today alex vanderswan, huh? the man who pled guilty today in federal court in washington is named alex vanderswan, he's 33, and trained as an english lawyer and today facing prison in a u.s. federal prison. prosecutors are holding his passport and preventing him from leaving from lawyers. to understand how we got to him, you should meet victor. ha handsome devil. president of ukraine. and looks aren't everything but they do count for something among politicians and he was considered to be a dashing and fairly carismatic fellow. that is him in december that same year. july on the left, december on the right. almost not r

what's amazing to me about this particular indictment is that the crime that alex vanderswan committed, it's barely been three months since he lied to the fbi. that came after a slew of indictments were released and that was after we knew lying to the fbi was a crime mueller would be polluting people for. but vanderswan told a total lie. he's a smart guy, he has an elite background, he's a son-in-law of an oligarch, why did he feel he could benefit from lying to the fbi. the situation he's involved in is a complex one, it's messy, it involves an extraordinary amount of power in the united states and it's something that's going to get even more interesting in the days to come. >> do you think this is a signal that other people are cooperating? >> this is the clearest sign that we have that rick gates is cooperating, there's a reference that discusses a phone call from rick gates to alex vanderswan, i don't think that mueller's team would know about his involvement except for bob gates information. >> that's a september 2016 phone call, there would be no wiretaps and it doesn't say, unli

. >> alex vanderswan, the son of a russian oligarch pleaded guilty to lying with trump advisor rick gates former campaign manager, paul manaforte, and it is part of a plea deal with robert mueller. >> we will break what you discussed into more detail in our next segment. is the republican investigation to the dossier heats up their spotlight continues to hover over three key players, hillary clinton, christopher steele and glenn simpson. sarah carter has been following the story since the beginning, and deeper in the obama administration. >> expanded to the state department, this is what devon nunez is looking at as well, the reason he sent these letters. it is expansive, looking at people in the state department, the second dossier, sidney blumenthal, close friend of hillary clinton is implicated in this. cody scheer who worked with her husband, and this is not just fusion gps, we are looking at christopher steele, a foreign ask agents, british by working with the russians but also looking at information through the state department, through allies of clinton back to christopher steele p

with his plea, alex vanderswan -- foreign agents registration act which governs foreign lobbying. >>>ebook's -- after special counsel robert mueller published his indictment on friday, rob goldman tweeted that most russian ad spending occurred after the election. he also said swaying the election was not the main goal. president trump retweeted that saying that the fake news media never fails. goldman says those are his own personal views and he conveyed them poorly. >>> more than 100 people have been killed in a rebel held damascus suburb. this is one of the bloodiest periods in the country's sev seven-year war. a bomb just narrowly missed an area in ghouta. the number of dead and this video provided by the syrian civil defense also known as white helmets. >>> some pretty tense homes at the united nations as ambassador nikki haley said she will not shut up. the comments were made to mahmoud abbas. today haley responded. >> i will decline the advice i was recently given by your top negotiator. i will not shut up rather, i will respectfully speak some hard truths. >> abbas actually lef

this time, charges on a man named alex vanderswan charged with lying to investigators, specifically abouttacts with former trump campaign official rick gates and someone named person a. vanderswan expected to plead guilty in federal court this afternoon. this came as a big surprise this morning. jessica schneider outside the courthouse with more. what have you

the indictment or the information yesterday filed against alex vanderswan demonstrated that mueller will go after lawyers and will go after them regardless of how small the violation may appear. he wants people to tell the truth. so i think that message is very clear. any lawyers who are involved in this are going to have to testify truthfully, or there will be consequences. >> and william, you recently wrote something that got a lot of attention in legal circles. you said trump likely fits the u.s. attorney manual definition of a target, a person against whom there's substantial evidence linking him or her to a crime and is a p-- >> the question is whether, first of all, whether trump will submit to an interview, i think it's fairly clear he will not submit to a voluntary interview. the question is then whether mueller should ask the grand jury to subpoena trump. >> you don't think he will? he had claimed publicly he would, bill clinton did, why wouldn't trump? >> i think he may. i think he has to carefully weigh the cost and benefits of going after trump. trump will fight a subpoena. i

this time, charges on a man named alex vanderswan charged with lying to investigators, specifically about his contacts with former trump campaign official rick gates and someone named person a. vanderswan expected to plead guilty in federal court this afternoon. this came as a big surprise this morning. jessica schneider outside the courthouse with more. what have you learned? >> reporter: well, john, you said it, somewhat of an unexpected move from mueller's team here. this is a lawyer from a prominent new york city law firm, who does have ties to both paul manafort as well as rick gates, charged now with lying to the special counsel's office and for not turning over certain documents. now, this all is contained in a two-page information. it charges this new york city certain, alex van der zwaan. he was involved back in 2012 with the team of lawyers. they drafted a report that was used by allies of the russian-backed ukrainian president to justify the jailing of one of their political rivals. now, the new york times is also reported in a report back in the fall that paul manafort was inv

yes, stephanie, we have new charges by special counsel robert mueller against an individual, alex vanderswan, and he's accused of making false statements to the special counsel's office and the fbi. and apparently, he was an attorney representing a ukrainian ministry. and, you know, we're sort of still sorting through exactly what his role in all this was, but the bottom line i think is don't lie to the fbi or the special counsel, they will come after you. this also sort of underscores, you know, how little we know about some of robert mueller's dealings. we've not heard of this person but, again, alex vander swan charged with making false statements to federal authorities. >> please keep reading on this, i want you to come back with more details later in the show. this is interesting, you know, joe scarborough ended his show saying whether you're a liberal or a company, no one knows what robert mueller is truly working on. and that is certainly the truth. >> that is absolutely right. >> i want to bring in malcolm nance, executive director of the terror asymmetrics project. michael allen, be