Scumbag Junior, Tom Hicks (head of America First), Giuliani’s busted buddies
AP photo
❝ Two Soviet-born donors to a pro- Trump fundraising committee who helped Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to investigate Democrat Joe Biden were arrested late Wednesday on criminal charges of violating campaign finance rules, including funneling Russian money into President Trump’s campaign.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Florida businessmen, have been under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and are expected to appear in federal court in Virginia later on Thursday, the people said. Both men were born in former Soviet republics.
❝ House committees issued subpoenas for documents from the two men on Thursday.
❝ Both men…gave $325,000 to the primary pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action, through an LLC called Global Energy Producers…Fruman made additional campaign donations totaling almost $400,000…That would bring the pair’s contributions to about $1 million.
All illegal. All confirming the sort of foreign electioneering for the Scumbag-in-Chief that the Mueller Report outlined. Meanwhile, every bigot’s favorite fake president continues running from the Constitutional effort to impeach his corrupt reign in the White House. With the aid of willing accomplices in the Republican Party. Of course.
UPDATE: Apparently, these creeps figured out (or were warned) that Giuliani’s water-carriers were in danger. They were busted preparing to get on a flight out of the country. One-way tickets in hand.
President Donald Trump says he hopes his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani does not end up getting indicted on criminal charges. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/10/trump-says-he-hopes-his-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-does-not-get-indicted.html
The indictment says Parnas and Fruman made illegal donations totaling $325,000 to a political action committee that supports Trump.
“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump told reporters Thursday.
The Miami Herald earlier this week ran an article about Parnas’ and Furman’s refusal to comply with requests for documents and testimony from House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry into Trump. [See https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2019/10/07/florida-businessmen-with-giuliani-ties-wont-comply-with-impeachment-inquiry/ ]
That article was illustrated with a photo showing Trump, Parnas, Furman and Giuliani standing together, smiling, at a prior event.
“Moe! Larry! The Cheese!”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGkYGn3XkAEB5SP?format=jpg
“It’s a small swamp after all: Rudy, Trump and a seemingly corrupt cast of characters” (NY Daily News) https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-rise-of-the-swamp-things-20191011-nw3ndyoyx5bbnisxwy5rr5vxza-story.html
“A photograph of President Donald Trump posing with a recently indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani was posted online in April 2014, two years prior to what had been their first known interaction,” Politico reported Saturday. https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/busted-trump-met-indicted-giuliani-associate-years-earlier-than-previously-reported/ The photo was posted to Facebook on April 2, 2014 by Shawn Jaros, AKA: Shawn Jarosovich.
“President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was paid $500,000 for work he did for a company co-founded by the Ukrainian-American businessman arrested last week on campaign finance charges, Giuliani told Reuters on Monday.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-giuliani-excl/exclusive-trump-lawyer-giuliani-was-paid-500000-to-consult-on-indicted-associates-firm-idUSKBN1WU07Z
“Giuliani said Parnas’ company, Boca Raton-based Fraud Guarantee, whose website says it aims to help clients “reduce and mitigate fraud”, engaged Giuliani Partners, a management and security consulting firm, around August 2018. Giuliani said he was hired to consult on Fraud Guarantee’s technologies and provide legal advice on regulatory issues.
Federal prosecutors are “examining Giuliani’s interactions” with Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, who was also indicted on campaign finance charges, a law enforcement source told Reuters on Sunday.
According to an indictment unsealed by U.S. prosecutors, an unidentified Russian businessman arranged for two $500,000 wires to be sent from foreign bank accounts to a U.S. account controlled by Fruman in September and October 2018. The money was used, in part, by Fruman, Parnas and two other men charged in the indictment to gain influence with U.S. politicians and candidates, the indictment said.
Foreign nationals are prohibited from making contributions and other expenditures in connection with U.S. elections, and from making contributions in someone else’s name.
Giuliani said he was confident that the money he received was from “a domestic source,” but he would not say where it came from.”
[Bloomberg]: Associates of a Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition to the U.S. were working to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden last summer in an effort to get Rudy Giuliani’s help in the oligarch’s legal case, according to three people familiar with the exchanges.
Dmitry Firtash, charged with conspiracy by the U.S. and living in Vienna, shuffled lawyers in July to add Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, vocal supporters of President Donald Trump who had worked with Giuliani. Around that time, some of Firtash’s associates began to use his broad network of Ukraine contacts to get damaging information on Biden, the people said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-18/to-win-giuliani-s-help-oligarch-s-allies-pursued-biden-dirt
[Washington Post]: “President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, pressed the Trump administration to grant a visa to a former Ukrainian official who had been removed from his job because of concerns he was not aggressively pursuing corruption cases, according to four U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
But senior State Department officials denied the visa for Viktor Shokin, who had been booted as Ukraine’s top prosecutor in 2016 following pressure from the West, including from then-Vice President Joe Biden, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, said the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
His visa was denied on corruption grounds, officials said.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-pressed-state-department-white-house-to-grant-visa-to-former-ukrainian-official/2019/10/18/a105e588-f217-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html
Indicted Giuliani Henchman Lev Parnas Raises Executive Privilege in Federal Court
Lev Parnas and Igor Furman pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges they violated federal campaign-finance laws. https://www.thedailybeast.com/giuliani-henchmen-lev-parnas-and-igor-fruman-plead-not-guilty-in-campaign-finance-case
“Feds blow door off safe, issue subpoenas as probe into Giuliani associates escalates” https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/politics/fruman-parnas-giuliani-investigation/index.html
In recent days, Giuliani has been seeking a criminal-defense attorney, CNN has reported. He says he has not been contacted by the FBI or by New York federal prosecutors.