Rudy Giuliani associate and Russian fixer Lev Parnas has been found guilty of campaign finance violations for funneling Putin mobster cash to Republicans.
Lev Parnas and his business partner, Igor Fruman, were at Dulles International Airport near Washington two years ago, holding one-way tickets for a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, when the F.B.I. caught up with them.
The two Soviet-born businessmen, who had climbed to prominent places in the orbit of President Donald J. Trump, were arrested before boarding the flight and charged with several campaign finance violations, including conspiring to funnel a Russian tycoon’s money into American politics.
In the years that followed, Mr. Parnas began to open up about his role in events connected to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment. He provided material to House investigators and acknowledged participating in an effort by Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate at the time who subsequently beat Mr. Trump.
Still, the campaign finance charges loomed. Even as Mr. Fruman and a second man charged in the case, David Correia, pleaded guilty, Mr. Parnas and a fourth defendant, Andrey Kukushkin, maintained their innocence. Last week, the two men went to trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
On Friday, Mr. Parnas’s activity as a political donor caught up with him, as a jury convicted him on all six counts he was facing. Mr. Kukushkin was also found guilty.
In a statement, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said that Mr. Parnas and Mr. Kukushkin had conspired to manipulate the American political system to enrich themselves.
”Campaign finance laws are designed to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections — unencumbered by foreign interests or influence,” Mr. Williams said. “Safeguarding those laws is essential to preserving the freedoms that Americans hold sacred.”
Speaking outside court after the verdict was read, Mr. Parnas’s lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, said his client planned to appeal and seek to have the conviction vacated.
Mr. Parnas, who is not in custody, was defiant.
“I’ve never hid from nobody,” he said, while thanking his supporters. “I’ve always stood up and told the truth.”
The verdict came after about six hours of deliberations, following testimony from, among others, a onetime finance director of a super PAC supporting Mr. Trump; an ex-chief of staff to a former Republican congressman from Texas; and the 2018 Republican candidate for governor of Nevada.
Prosecutors outlined a two-part scheme, saying Mr. Parnas had lied to the Federal Election Commission about certain campaign donations he had made and that he and Mr. Kukushkin had tried to gain favor among candidates with contributions tied to the Russian tycoon, Andrey Muraviev, with whom they were involved in a cannabis business.
“The purpose behind this conspiracy was influence buying,” a prosecutor, Hagan Cordell Scotten, said during closing arguments on Thursday, adding: “The voters would never know whose money was pouring into our elections.”
Arguably the biggest recipient of Parnas's generosity is former Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate and current US senate candidate Adam Laxalt, who testified in the Parnas trial last month.
Keep in mind that Parnas's targets weren't federal officeholders, but state Republicans like Laxalt (running for Governor) and current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. What Parnas wanted was in on the ground floor of state-level legalized marijuana in Republican states, and Giuliani was his ticket in.
Don't get it twisted though. Parnas gave nearly a third of a million to a Trump PAC illegally.
When Parnas used his influence in Ukraine to help Giuliani and Trump go after Hunter Biden, he thought he was on Easy Street. Of course, you trust DOnald Trump, this is what happens.
You face prison.
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