Donald Trump’s TV attorney and current fixer Rudy Giuliani may soon have to pay for the company he keeps. Yesterday, the FBI arrested two of his business associates trying to leave the country with one-way international plane tickets. It gets worse.
The two men have been a link between Giuliani and “several current and former senior Ukrainian prosecutors.” Unfortunately for the attorney, he was seen having lunch with both men at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. just up the street from the White House.
Although both men were naturalized citizens, Lev Parnas was born in Russia, and Igor Fruman was born in Ukraine. The Florida businessmen donated $325,000 to Trump’s largest super PAC America First Action. They set up an illegal LLC to funnel the money to the Trump campaign.
They were arrested hours after dining with Giuliani. Both were subpoenaed by the three major House impeachment committees: Intelligence with Adam Schiff (D-CA), Oversight and Reform with Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and Foreign Relations with Eliot Engel (D-NY).
The two men appeared in Virginia’s federal court briefly, according to The Wall Street Journal:
‘…[they were] dressed in T-shirts…They were arrested at Dulles Airport on Wednesday while awaiting an international flight with one-way tickets, according to people familiar with the matter, a day before one of them was scheduled to testify before House committees.’
Attorney for Trump, Jay Sekulow, said:
‘Neither the president nor the campaign nor political-action committees were aware of these transactions.’
The two just began their political giving a year ago:
‘Parnas and Fruman had almost no history of political giving before March 2018, when they both began to spend lavishly on politics, according to the indictment, although Mr. Parnas had contributed about $100,000 to Mr. Trump’s initial campaign in late October 2016, FEC records show. They began last year donating to Republican campaigns including Mr. Trump’s reelection bid and outside groups that support him.’
Giuliani used the businessmen to find dirt on the Biden family, Hillary Clinton, and the DCCC. They obtained money from Ukrainians by making their connections to Washington known.
The 21-page indictment claimed that Parnas and Fruman:
‘…were engaged in political activities in the U.S. on behalf of one or more Ukrainian government officials—including a lobbying campaign, targeted at a Republican congressman, to remove the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv. President Trump ordered the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, removed from her post in May.’
The duo eventually ended up contributing one million dollars to members of the GOP, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
According to the indictment, an unnamed Russian donor was also a source of the political contributions. Federal law prohibits anyone from any other country donating to the U.S. elections.
Giuliani’s associates were charged with four counts, including conspiracy, falsification of records and lying to the Federal Election Commission about their political donations, according to the indictment.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order
