rigorousintuition.ca

Seth Abramson
‏
BREAKING NEWS: Dmitry Firtash—Repped By Trump Legal Advisors, Getting Hundreds of Millions From Putin for No Clear Reason—Was Financing the Work of the Two Defendants Who Were (Per Trump Lawyer John Dowd) Aiding Trump's Legal Team, Suggesting Putin Funded Trump's Ukraine Lobbying


Ahem.

"Firtash was “financing” the activities of Parnas and Fruman, the source familiar with their business dealings said..."


1/ *Insane*.

TRUMP AGENTS: Giuliani, diGenova, Toensing, Parnas, Fruman
GIULIANI AGENTS: Parnas, Fruman
DIGENOVA/TOENSING AGENTS: Parnas, Fruman
FIRTASH AGENTS: Parnas, Fruman
PARNAS/FRUMAN AGENTS: Giuliani, Downing, Zehlne
MANAFORT AGENTS: Downing, Zehle
PUTIN AGENTS: Firtash


2/ That's only a *partial* map of it all, though. Because also:

TRUMP AGENTS: +Manafort, +Dowd
PARNAS/FRUMAN AGENTS: +Dowd
PUTIN AGENTS: +Manafort
GIULIANI AGENTS: +diGenova, +Toensing
FIRTASH AGENTS: +diGenova, +Toensing

Starting to see how this all shapes up as a conspiracy?

3/ Everyone has been wondering (due to great work by Maddow) why Putin was paying Firtash—where the money was going—and now it seems it was going to Parnas, Fruman, diGenova, Toensing, and via all *four* to Giuliani, who was working for Trump but maybe *not* being paid by *him*.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status ... 2469387264

Indicted Giuliani associate worked on behalf of Ukrainian oligarch Firtash
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the two Florida businessmen who helped U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney investigate his political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, also has been working for the legal team of a Ukrainian oligarch who faces bribery charges in the United States, according to attorneys for the businessmen and the oligarch.

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash arrives at court in Vienna, Austria, February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo
Lev Parnas, one of the two associates of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, served as a translator for lawyers representing oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Parnas was arrested on Thursday along with the other Florida businessman, Igor Fruman, on unrelated charges that included illegally funneling $325,000 to a political action committee supporting pro-Trump candidates.

Both men had worked in an unspecified capacity for Firtash before Parnas joined the Ukrainian’s legal team, according to a person familiar with the Florida men’s business dealings with Firtash.

The Floridians’ connection to indicted oligarch Firtash injects an intriguing new character into the rapidly unfolding drama surrounding the effort to impeach Trump.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives launched the impeachment inquiry, the first step in unseating a U.S. president, over allegations that Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to help investigate Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Giuliani was probing discredited allegations that Biden, when he was vice president, sought the firing of Ukraine’s chief prosecutor to halt the investigation of a gas company on which his son, Hunter Biden, was a board member. The Bidens have denied the claims, and the Trump camp has produced no evidence to support the assertions.

Firtash, one of Ukraine’s wealthiest businessmen, is battling extradition by U.S. authorities on bribery charges from Vienna, where he has lived for five years.

Federal prosecutors in Illinois said in court papers in 2017 that Firtash was an “upper-echelon” associate of Russian organized crime. He was indicted in 2013 and charged with bribing Indian officials for access to titanium mines. Firtash has denied any wrongdoing.

Firtash was “financing” the activities of Parnas and Fruman, the source familiar with their business dealings said. The source did not detail their specific work for the oligarch or how much money he had paid them and over what period.

U.S. lawmakers have sought to question the pair about their involvement in Giuliani’s investigation as part of the impeachment inquiry. Giuliani told Reuters in an interview that Parnas and Fruman - U.S. citizens who were born in Ukraine and Belarus, respectively - had helped “find people for me in Ukraine.”

In recent months, Parnas was working for Firtash’s legal team, Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing. The firm worked on Firtash’s criminal and extradition cases.

“Mr. Parnas was retained by DiGenova & Toensing, LLP as an interpreter in order to communicate with their client Mr. Firtash, who does not speak English,” the Washington-based firm said in a statement.

A spokesman for the firm said Fruman was not retained in any capacity. DiGenova and Toensing did not comment further on Firtash’s business dealings with the two men in response to questions from Reuters.

John Dowd, the lawyer representing Parnas and Fruman, confirmed to Reuters that Parnas had worked for Firtash’s legal team as an interpreter. But Dowd also told the U.S. Congress that both men worked for DiGenova and Toensing.

On Oct. 3, Dowd wrote Congress to say the two men could not provide certain information about Ukraine because they were partially covered by attorney-client and other legal privileges. Dowd based the privilege claim on the fact that the two men assisted lawyers DiGenova and Toensing; that they had worked for Giuliani; and that Giuliani had previously represented them in their personal and business affairs.

Dowd’s letter did not mention Firtash. He declined to respond to a request to clarify whether one or both of his clients worked for Firtash’s legal team.

Parnas’s role as an interpreter for DiGenova and Toensing was reported on Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.

FLIGHTS TO VIENNA

The person familiar with Parnas and Fruman’s business affairs told Reuters that both men had been working for Firtash for several months before Parnas joined the Ukrainian mogul’s legal team, and that Firtash has paid their expenses in the past. Their costs include private jet charters in the United States and foreign travel to Vienna, according to the source, who is familiar with their finances.

Giuliani told Reuters the two men had been to Vienna - where Firtash lives - three to six times in the last two months. Giuliani declined to comment on the reasons for their travels. He said he did not know about any business relationship between Firtash and the two men that helped him investigate Biden.

“They could be involved in business with each other,” Giuliani said. “It’s possible. I don’t know. They may be involved in his defense.”

Firtash is a former supporter of Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich. He made a fortune selling Russian gas to the Kiev government. An Austrian court in June cleared the way for his extradition to the United States, but Firtash’s legal team continues to fight it.

In an interview with Reuters last month, well before his arrest, Parnas said Firtash had been framed by U.S. prosecutors and diplomats.

“They took an innocent man like Dmytro Firtash and they painted him out to be  this bad old Mafia  guy,  which he’s obviously not. He’s one of the most honest businessmen out there.  Incredible businessman.”

Parnas told Reuters that Firtash was the victim of a cabal that he alleges was involved in suppressing corruption by Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine. “Same people involved,” he said. “Same characters.”

Parnas declined to comment on the specific work he performed for Firtash, referring questions to the oligarch’s lawyers, Toensing and DiGenova.

Reporting by Aram Roston in Washington, Karen Freifeld in New York and Polina Ivanova in Kiev; Editing by Ross Colvin and Brian Thevenot
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN1WQ2H5

Laura Rozen
‏
Hm.Toensing has not tweeted in 2 days when her law firm’s interpreter in its representation of Firtash, Lev Parnas, was arrested.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm

2014 photo shows earlier ties between Trump and indicted Giuliani associate
Trump has sought to distance himself from Lev Parnas as evidence of their ties mounts.

Other Facebooks posts by Jaros around that time describe Parnas as a business partner. Jaros does not reveal the nature of their work together, but on March 14, 2014, he posted, “three letters llc!!!!!!!!!!!!” on his Facebook page. May 28, 2014, he posted, “two words foreign investments!!!!!!!!!!!!” on his Facebook page. On May 22, he posted, “i was told today some people i deal with have 300 mllion in dong in their posession.”

A year later, on May 12, 2015, he posted a photo of Parnas sitting in the backseat of a Rolls Royce with the caption, “the big homie, okk, one call and bammm!!!!!!”

Jaros is an itinerant musician and music producer, who has worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Queens, New York; Atlanta and Minneapolis, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The profile also describes it as his job to "negotiate and close deals centered on gold oil, rough diamonds" for a business called Gabriel and Jaros Holdings. Jaros's work appears to be lucrative. He regularly posts photos of large piles of cash on his social media accounts.

Jaros did not immediately respond to requests for comment made over social media. A lawyer for Parnas, John Dowd, said he did not know anything about the photographed interaction and declined to answer further questions.

Following the unsealing of Parnas’ indictment last week for campaign finance violations over alleged schemes to buy political influence on behalf of foreigners, Trump said he did not know Parnas or his business partner and co-defendant, Igor Fruman. “I don’t know those gentleman,” he told reporters before boarding Marine One en route to a campaign rally in Minneapolis. “Maybe they were clients of Rudy. You’d have to ask Rudy.”

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal described Parnas’ attendance at a Trump campaign fundraiser attended by the candidate and Giuliani in October 2016 as “his first known appearance in Mr. Trump’s circle.” Parnas, 47, told The Washington Post that he sold Trump Organization condos while Trump’s father, Fred, was still running the business.

POLITICO reported on Friday that the French newspaper Le Figaro interviewed Parnas at the Trump campaign’s invite-only election night party in 2016, and that Parnas described himself to the paper as a friend of Trump’s.

Those are not Parnas’ only ties to the campaign. His son, Aaron, volunteered for the Trump campaign in Florida in 2016, according to a 2017 profile in The Palm Beach Post.

A man answering the phone at a number listed for Aaron Parnas hung up after hearing they had been reached by a reporter. The person did not respond to follow-up text messages.

In May 2018, Parnas posted a photo of himself with Trump at the White House with a caption describing an “incredible dinner and even better conversation,” in a screenshot captured by The Campaign Legal Center. Later that month he posted a picture of himself with Fruman and Donald Trump Jr. in Beverly Hills, with the caption “Power Breakfast!!!”

Spokespeople for the White House and the Trump reelection campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Susan Wiles, who co-chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign in Florida, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Marc Caputo contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story cited a French newspaper report. The report appeared in Le Figaro.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/1 ... nOGpA7Z1n8

Seth Abramson

*SEQUENCE, PART I*

1. Barr goes to SDNY to see SDNY chief/Trump transition official Berman. SDNY/FBI are working on Parnas/Fruman case. NYC FBI previously leaked to Rudy (2016).

2. Within hours, Rudy calls Parnas/Fruman to lunch. All three plan to go to Vienna—where Firtash is.

*SEQUENCE, PART II*

3. Firtash is a Manafort associate/Putin agent who finances Parnas/Fruman. Giuliani has worked for and employed Parnas/Fruman.

4. Giuliani lies to press about plans for Vienna and Parnas/Fruman travel plans in the hours before he knows they've been arrested.

*SEQUENCE, PART III*

5. Trump lies about his ties to Parnas/Fruman and says he doesn't know if Giuliani is his attorney—a lie.

6. The Trump-Parnas evidence includes a bizarre tidbit of information: Felix Sater—Trump's ex-con Russia fixer—also knows Parnas, and has for a while.

*SEQUENCE, PART IV*

7. Deep dives on Firtash remind America that Firtash got his start in business via close Putin friend—and brutal gangster—Semion Mogilevich. Semion Mogilevich is also tied to Sater through Sater's dad. Parnas and Fruman's associations start to seem very dark.

*SEQUENCE, PART V*

8. Trump aides Stone and Nunberg say Trump knew he'd be running for POTUS in 2012. New photos indicate Trump and his family have been in contact with Parnas and Fruman since 2014—or earlier. Parnas/Furman's funding, per Maddow, may be partly coming from Putin.

*UPSHOT*

The "phone call" part of this is over—Trump admitted to an impeachable, personal-profit quid pro quo involving U.S. military aid by a) releasing a memo of the Zelensky call, and b) what the memo said. *Now* what we're seeing is this is all part of the Trump-Russia case.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status ... 4000393216

Scott Stedman
‏
Two federal sources have told me that Parnas is paid by Russian businessmen close to the Kremlin and state-owned Russian institutions. The sources were tracking the money long before Giuliani popped up. “We know who pays Parnas and it isn’t pretty”

This prediction has come true. The Russian businessmen have successfully funneled money to the President’s lawyer

Reuters just reported that a Russian businessman wired $500,000 to Fruman and Parnas who subsequently funneled it to Giuliani.

This money, per multiple sources, is not clean money. There may not be direct illegality in the payment, but the operations of the businessman are part of a Russian government plot to influence the 2020 elections
https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/statu ... 2085952512

HatGuarantee
‏

@Popehat
Follow Follow @Popehat
More
Comic-Opera Goons: So we’re going to pay you from a company we’re naming “Stolen Nazi Memorabilia”
Rudy: I don’t love it
COG: We could use our LLC “Hardcore Goat Porn
ography”
Rudy: eh
COG: How about “Entirely Fraudulent Corp.”
Rudy: Warmer
https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1184121456386404352

FBI Arrests Fourth Man at JFK Airport in Probe of Rudy Giuliani Associates
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, says he had no knowledge of illegal donations

By Joe ValiquettePublished 2 hours ago | Updated 56 minutes ago
FBI Arrests Fourth Man at JFK Airport in Probe of Rudy Giuliani Associates
A Florida man wanted in a campaign finance case involving associates of Rudy Giuliani is in federal custody.

Spokespersons for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and the FBI confirm that David Correia was arrested after flying Wednesday to JFK Airport in New York City to turn himself in.

Correia, 44, was named in an indictment with two Giuliani associates and another man arrested last week on charges they made illegal contributions to a congressman and a political action committee supporting President Donald Trump. The two associates were arrested last week. Andrey Kukushkin, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, was also charged in the case. Kukushkin was arrested last week in San Francisco.

Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, says he had no knowledge of illegal donations.

Florida Men Tied to Giuliani, Ukraine Probe Arrested

[NATL] Florida Men Tied to Giuliani, Ukraine Probe Arrested
Two associates of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Guiliani, involved in his efforts in Ukraine, were arrested Wednesday on charges of campaign finance violations. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested at Dulles International Airport Wednesday evening while attempting to leave the country with one-way tickets. NBC's Alice Barr repor...
Read more

(Published Friday, Oct. 11, 2019)
Prosecutors said Correia, who owns a home with his wife in West Palm Beach, was part of efforts by co-defendants Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to leverage outsized political donations to Republican candidates and committees as part of an effort to advance their business interests.

Both Parnas and Fruman have a history of business dealings with Giuliani. Prosecutors said that, among other things, the pair made campaign contributions with the intent of lobbying U.S. politicians to oust the country's ambassador to Ukraine. At the time, Giuliani was trying to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of Trump's potential Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.

Correia is accused of conspired with the other defendants to make political donations to local and federal politicians in New York, Nevada and other states with the aim of trying to get support for a new recreational marijuana business.

All of the defendants were expected to appear Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. A lawyer for Correia is not yet listed in court records.

Correia is listed as the registered agent for a Florida corporation tied to a series of wire transfers prosecutors allege was part of an elaborate effort to hide the true source of funds used to make the donations.

He posed with then-Rep. Pete Sessions in a 2018 photo taken inside the Texas Republican's Capitol Hill office that Parnas posted on social media with the caption "Hard at work !!"

Trump on Giuliani Associates: ‘I Don’t Know Those Gentlemen’

[NATL] Trump on Giuliani Associates: ‘I Don’t Know Those Gentlemen’
President Donald Trump said Thursday he does not know the two businessmen tied to his lawyer who were charged with federal campaign finance violations.

(Published Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019)
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/D ... 12841.html

Simon Shuster
‏
NEW report details how President Trump’s allies built ties to an indicted Ukrainian oligarch over last 3 months. https://time.com/5699201/exclusive-how- ... ack-biden/ … What struck me most while reporting it was the timing of the relationship. THREAD /1
‏
In late June, the legal team for Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian mogul wanted in Chicago on corruption charges, told me they had documents to share. This material, they said, would be “very tough” to Obama’s people, while Trump’s camp “would like it.” /2

Around same time, Rudy Giuliani and his associate, Victoria Toensing, were reportedly trying to get dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine. These aims seemed to align with the Firtash legal team in Vienna. 3/

Things moved fast from there. In July, Firtash hired Toensing and her husband, Joe DiGenova. Both lawyers are diehard defenders of Trump on TV and close Giuliani associates. The two teams were linked at that point. 4/

Firtash’s representatives, reliable contacts of mine for years, then began to channel my requests to someone new: Mark Corallo, a Republican PR man, who had recently been spokesman for Trump’s legal team. He was now speaking for Firtash legal team. /5

The first time I got wind of these changes in Firtash legal team was on July 24, the night before Trump had the now-infamous call with Ukraine’s President. The efforts to get dirt on Biden seemed to be intensifying on multiple fronts. /6

Corallo set up an interview for me with Toensing and DiGenova on July 31. I’d never heard of them. Quick search showed Trump had considered them for his legal team last year. Now these two were representing Firtash. /7

More surprising, Toensing and DiGenova then hired another Giuliani associate, the now-indicted Florida businessman Lev Parnas, to be their interpreter in talks with Firtash. /8

For details of what these people got from the Firtash legal team, and how Giuliani used it, read our full report @TIME https://time.com/5699201/exclusive-how- ... ack-biden/ … It leaves plenty of questions unanswered. /9

For one, how did the Firtash legal team get the documents that are now central to Giuliani’s defense of Trump? More important, what does Firtash stand to gain from all this? His legal team has declined to answer. /10 END

https://twitter.com/shustry/status/1184505456200486913

When the owner of a Trump Palace condo in Florida where Lev Parnas lived asked him to leave & threatened to call police, Parnas said, "If you call the cops, they are not going to find you ever." The next time they met, Parnas put a gun to the owner's head.

Giuliani Ukraine associate had checkered past even before indictment
Lev Parnas’ track record is punctuated with alleged death threats and partnerships with fraudsters.

Born in Ukraine in 1972 and raised in Brooklyn, Parnas has told the New Yorker that he worked for a realtor selling units in Trump buildings as a teenager. He’s spent his adult life in Florida, where over a 20-year period he provided 21 different business addresses for at least 16 different ventures. One of them, the PC Edge Foundation, registered to the same Trump Palace address as the episode involving the gun, proclaimed its mission was “to raise funding and awareness to various charity organizations. Our main focus is to eliminate illiteracy.” It was shut down after 17 months.

It was also just one of many obscure forays in Florida business that now are getting a second look as Parnas heads to court on federal criminal charges while also serving as a central figure in the House-led Trump impeachment investigation. In 1999, Parnas appeared in the state’s corporate records listed with a Boca Raton address as a director of Program Trading Corp. Among the other four directors was a Staten Island man, Mitchell Reisman, who remained in business with Parnas through at least 2003. Parnas also named Reisman as a director of one of his own businesses, Aaron Investment Corp. But in 2004, Reisman pleaded guilty in New Jersey to theft by deception and securities fraud for activities that were unrelated to Program Trading Corp., nonetheless dating to the period of his business partnership with Parnas. Later, Resiman was sentenced to 51 months in prison for another fraud scheme that dated back to 2003 and was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.

Some of Parnas’ escapades were relatively harmless. In 2002, he was among a group of Miami Heat ticket-holders sued by the basketball team for failing to pay on multi-season, six-figure contracts for premium seats. At the time, Parnas told the Miami Herald he had stopped paying because the team wasn’t living up to its end of an agreement that included a verbal promise to have a player hand him a signed team basketball at center court during halftime of a game in 2000. When that did not happen, Parnas told the paper, “It made me look like a fool in front of my clients.”

Other Parnas ventures had him dealing with associates involved in serious criminal enterprises. By 2006, Parnas was listed in Florida filings as the chairman of Edgetech International. A Nevada-registered corporation that marketed itself as a seller of computer gadgets, Edgetech brought Parnas into business dealings with unsavory characters.

The firm described itself in one press release as selling “the PocketSurfer, a new handheld wireless Web access device” to an international audience from Russia. The company was also promoting a product called “The Edge, the world's first ultra-mobile handheld computer with a built-in modem operating at DSL-type speed,” which it planned to plug in an appearance at the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah.

More big announcements kept coming. In September 2006, Edgetech rolled out a partnership with the producer for the pop music band NSYNC, Lou Pearlman, in which a musician signed to Pearlman’s record label inserted lyrics about “The Edge” into a song, which he then performed at the Glass Lounge, “one of the hottest night clubs on South Beach.” In a press release, Parnas said, “Pearlman's accomplishments are legendary within the industry, having reached a level of success not often duplicated.”

At the time, investigators were closing in on Pearlman for running one of the largest ponzi schemes in history. In February 2007, Florida authorities seized control of some of Pearlman’s businesses amid fraud accusations. Four months later, a federal grand jury indicted Pearlman and after his conviction he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Pearlman died in federal custody in 2016.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/1 ... ast-049677

STOLEN IDENTITIES
Did Rudy Pal Igor Fruman Steal Another Man’s Identity to Make a $100K Campaign Donation?
The effort to hide campaign donations may be more deceptive than previously known.
Lachlan Markay
Reporter
Sam Stein
Politics Editor
Updated 10.17.19 9:20AM ET / Published 10.17.19 5:19AM ET

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
When federal prosecutors indicted Rudy Giuliani pal Igor Fruman for campaign-finance violations last week, among their allegations was that Fruman concealed at least some of his contributions by misspelling his last name: FURman instead of FRUman.

The deception, however, may have gone even deeper than that. Federal Election Commission filings disclosing a huge contribution Fruman made to a Republican joint fundraising committee last year don’t just misspell his last name; they falsely list him as an actual Los Angeles-based doctor named Igor Furman.

The contribution at issue was a $100,000 donation in April 2018 to House Majority Trust, a fundraising account benefiting the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. The group’s FEC filings list the donor as Igor Furman, not Igor Fruman. And while the address listed on the filing is the same one as the Miami-area condo owned by the Giuliani-tied Fruman, the occupation listed on the filing is the one associated with the L.A. doctor, founder of a company called Qualified Billing & Collections.

Furman, the doctor, had donated to Giuliani’s presidential campaign in 2007 and went to medical school in the same city—Odessa, Ukraine—from which the indicted Fruman hails. But he never made a donation to House Majority Trust, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to The Daily Beast.

Asked whether Fruman had intentionally misrepresented his identity to House Majority Trust in making the contribution, his attorney John Dowd told The Daily Beast, “No idea. Ask Dr. Furman.” When informed that the actual Dr. Furman had denied making the contribution, and asked again whether his client had intentionally misreported details of his identity, Dowd repeated, “No idea.”

House Majority Trust’s treasurer did not respond to repeated questions about Fruman’s donation and how it was reported.

What might otherwise be a simple paperwork error or an innocuous case of mistaken identity is uniquely relevant—and potentially problematic—after prosecutors accused Fruman last week of deliberately obscuring his identity in reporting personal information accompanying his large political contributions. It is illegal under federal law to “knowingly and willfully” make a political contribution in the name of another person, in particular as part of an effort to evade campaign-contribution limits.

The indictment issued in Fruman’s case highlighted one of his 2018 donations and noted “the contribution—and several other significant contributions made at and around the same time—was made in the name of ‘Igor Furman’ not IGOR FRUMAN, the defendant.” Prosecutors alleged that the mistakes were not typos or innocent misstatements of fact, but rather part of an “effort to conceal the source of the funds and to evade federal reporting requirements.”

FEC forms list the misspelled version of Fruman’s name in other high-dollar contributions, including a pair of $50,000 contributions to another joint fundraising committee called Protect the House. But unlike his House Majority Trust contribution, those list his employer as “Import Export Corp,” Fruman’s Odessa-based business.

FOLLOW THE MONEY
Congressman Scored Millions After Targeting Ukraine Diplo

Lachlan Markay

The Furman who founded Qualified Billing & Collections made just one other federal campaign contribution in the years since he donated to Giuliani. In 2014, he gave $1,000 to the House campaign of California Republican Elan Carr.

In February of this year, Trump tapped Carr to be the State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-rudy- ... n-donation

More
emptywheel Retweeted Scott Stedman
So Joe and Vicki got paid $250K/mo by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch to complain that Hunter Biden got paid $50K/mo?

And does Fox News require its commentators to disclose their ties to the Russian mob, or should we just assume everyone has such ties?
https://twitter.com/emptywheel

WILL FOX NEWS ASK ITS COMMENTATORS TO DISCLOSE THEIR MOBBED UP CLIENTS?

October 19, 2019/4 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, Impeachment /by emptywheel
Yesterday, I asked Fox Media Critic Howard Kurtz if he could dedicate a show to why Fox News commentators Joe DiGenova (who recently took to the air to accuse Democrats of “regicide”) and Victoria Toensing don’t disclose their representation of Dmitry Fitash, whom Rudy Giuliani has publicly asserted has close ties to mobster Semion Mogilevich. It would also be nice if they disclosed that in recent months they were being paid by corrupt Ukrainian oligarch Firtash $250,000 a month to to complain that Hunter Biden was paid $50,000 a month by a different corrupt Ukrainian oligarch.

To be sure, I’m not arguing that there’s a problem with DiGenova and Toensing representing a mobbed up oligarch. Everyone deserves good legal representation and if Firtash wants to spend his money paying for disinformation rather than sound legal advice, that’s his choice.

Mind you, Fox News might feel differently. After all, the network aggressively backed a smear campaign during the Obama Administration to tar any DOJ appointee who had ever represented a terrorism defendant. Among the Fox personalities who, in 2010, believed that lawyers’ past representation of certain kinds of defendants suggested a current ideological affinity for the underlying crime were:

Sean Hannity
Steve Doocy
Michelle Malkin
Charles Krauthammer
Monica Crowley
According to Sean Hannity’s logic — “logic” I’m not adopting — DiGenova and Toensing’s representation of a guy with ties to organized crime suggests they, themselves, must support organized crime (and bribery, which is the charge Firtash is trying to beat in the US).

Still, particularly given this precedent, so long as Fox News pretends to be a news organization, it would seem advisable for the network to require DiGenova and Toensing to disclose their ties to someone that the President’s own personal lawyer says has ties to the mob.

Update: Laura Rozen notes that Chris Wallace was among the first to report that Di Genova and Toensing were part of Rudy’s plot.

FOX News has learned the president’s private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was not acting alone in trying to get dirt from Ukrainian officials on 2020 rival Joe Biden. Two high-profile Washington lawyers, Joe diGenova, who’s been a fierce critic of the Democratic investigation, and his wife Victoria Toensing, were working with Giuliani to get oppo research on Biden.

According to a top U.S. official, all three were working off the books apart from the administration. The only person in government who knows what they were doing is President Trump.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/10/19/w ... p-clients/

PEN PALS
Lev Parnas Instagram Reveals Personal Note From Trump Thanking Him For His ‘Friendship’
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated 10.21.19 10:24AM ET /
Published 10.21.19 9:06AM ET

Wall Street Journal / Lev Parnas / Instagram
The private Instagram account of Lev Parnas—one of two Rudy Giuliani associates charged with campaign-finance violations—reveals a personal note to him apparently from Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal gained access to the locked account which shows Parnas at events with Giuliani, Donald Jr., Eric, President Trump, and his ex-wife Ivana. One photograph shows a note apparently signed by Trump and first lady Melania Trump, which reads: “To Lev Parnas, Thank you for your friendship and dedication to our cause. Leaders like you in Florida are key to fulfilling our bold agenda to Make America Great Again!” The photos also show Parnas in the leadup to the midterm elections flying around on a private jet with Giuliani. The day after Barr released a summary of the Mueller Report, he posted photos from a “celebration dinner” with Trump’s legal team. After Parnas was indicted, Trump said of him and fellow Giuliani associate Igor Fruman: “I don’t know them. I don’t know about them. I don’t know what they do.”


Shelby Holliday
✔
@shelbyholliday
· 6h
Replying to @shelbyholliday and 3 others
In August of 2015, Parnas posted four photos and a video from a Trump campaign event at Doral, including this picture with Trump and his son. https://www.wsj.com/video/private-photo ... 1488E.html …
View image on Twitter

Shelby Holliday
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@shelbyholliday
Then, his account jumps from 2015 to 2018. In Aug '18, Parnas posted a pic of a personalized thank-you note from POTUS & FLOTUS. “Lev Parnas, Thank you for your friendship and dedication to our cause,” it reads. WH didn't respond to request for comment. https://www.wsj.com/video/private-photo ... 1488E.html …
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/lev-parna ... via=mobile

On March 25, the day after Barr released a summary of the Mueller report, Parnas posted photos from what he called a celebratory dinner with the Trump legal team at Trump's hotel in DC.

A lawyer for Parnas said he’ll plead not guilty to the charges he's facing & said it’s no surprise he has pics with Trump bc he was a major donor & was helping Giuliani rep him.

A lawyer for Fruman declined to comment.

Giuliani didn't respond to a Q about the photos.

One of Parnas's first photos, posted in April 2015, shows him posing next to Ivana Trump and his business partner David Correia.

The caption: “Fraud Guarantee pow wow at Lique The atmosphere

In August of 2015, Parnas posted four photos and a video from a Trump campaign event at Doral, including this picture with Trump and his son.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson?ref_sr ... r%5Eauthor