Who was president in 2012?
As a lawyer in an international law firm, van der Zwaan worked with Gates and Manafort for a Ukrainian political party closely aligned with Russia. The law firm, Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom, was hired by the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2012 to examine the prosecution of one of his former political rivals.
The firm's work was supposed to be independent of the lobbying by Manafort and Gates, but van der Zwaan leaked a copy of the report and talking points to Gates and lied about later conversations in 2016 with Gates about how the firm was paid and potential criminal charges against the firm in Ukraine.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/attorney-alex-van-der-zwaan-first-person-sentenced-mueller-probe-n862186