material. In the ORF documentary The talented Mr. Strache - How to destroy (s) a career, which was broadcast in April 2022, opponents, companions and Strache himself review the political career from rise to fall and also deal specifically with the Ibiza affair. Later career In February 2020, Strache became leader of Team HC Strache – Alliance for Austria. He participated in the 2020 Viennese state election, but his party did not win any seats. Relationship with Trump administration Strache flew to New York shortly after the election of Donald Trump in December 2016 to meet with Michael Flynn at the Trump Tower. Flynn had just helped lead the effort to elect Trump and served as his National Security Advisor for 24 days in January through February 2017. Also in November, Austrian far-right politicians Norbert Hofer and Strache went to Russia in order to become go-betweens to facilitate cooperation between Putin and Trump. While in Moscow, the Freedom Party concluded a "working agreement" with Putin's United Russia Party. Flynn later resigned after information surfaced that he had misled the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence about the nature and content of his communications with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Conviction and Acquittal Strache was indicted on grounds of bribery by the Public Prosecutorial Service for Economic Cases and Corruption (WKStA) in the Criminal Court of Vienna. The criminal charge accused the FPÖ – under Strache's leadership – of having accepted illicit campaign donations totaling €12,000 from Walter Grubmüller, the owner of a private nursing home in Vienna. Grubmüller had allegedly bribed Strache to sponsor a legislative bill amending the law which governs the Privatkrankenanstalten-Finanzierungsfonds, a government fund that supports private medical institutions. The amendment would have caused the fund to also cover Grubmüller's nursing home and allowed him to charge the ÖGK – Austria's tax-funded universal healthcare system – for patients who choose the public option. On 27 August 2021, Strache and Grubmüller were convicted and sentenced to 15 months of probation; Strache appealed the ruling to the Vienna Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht). The Vienna Court of Appeals reversed the judgment - since in its view, exculpatory material had not been considered properly - and remanded the case. On January 10, 2023, the Criminal Court of Vienna acquitted Strache, citing lack of proof. References External links 1969 births Living people Austrian anti-communists Austrian Roman Catholics Critics of Islam