L to R: Indicted businessman Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman with Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani (Miami Herald/File)
An indicted business associate of Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani confirms the Trump-Giuliani campaign for Ukraine’s investigations to tarnish Presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Democratic Party and to cover up Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Lev Parnas also reinforced that Trump demanded a “quid pro quo”, cutting off almost $400 million in military aid and blocked a White House visit by new Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the investigations.
Parnas, indicted with fellow Giuliani associate Igor Fruman on campaign finance charges in September, said through his lawyer that he delivered the message of Trump’s demands in mid-May to the incoming Zelenskiy Government.
That date is the earliest indication of Trump’s intention to freeze aid in the campaign launched by Giuliani in November 2018.
Fruman, who was in the meeting, insisted that he and Parnas never raised the aid issue or the attendance of Vice President Mike Pence at Zelenskiy’s inauguration.
Giuliani — who is being investigated by Federal prosecutors over his lobbying activities, including matters in Ukraine — maintained his denials, “Categorically, I did not tell [Parnas] to say that.”
Parnas and Fruman, Soviet-born businessmen based in Florida, have worked with Giuliani on projects for years. They were used by the attorney to set up contacts in Ukraine, including with current and former officials, in the effort for a statement of investigations.
Both have been subpoenaed to testify before House committees in Trump’s impeachment inquiry. Parnas’s lawyer said his client will comply as long as he does not incriminate himself.
The meeting in May occurred after Giuliani said he was going to Kiev to urge Zelenskiy to pursue investigations. After public backlash, Giuliani cancelled the trip at the last minute.
Parnas and Fruman met Serhiy Shefir, who was in President-elect Zelenskiy’s inner circle at an outdoor cafe. Parnas’s lawyer Joseph Bondy, said the message to the Ukrainians was given at Giuliani’s direction, whom Mr. Parnas believed was acting on Trump’s instructions.
Fruman’s lawyer John Dowd, a former attorney for Trump, said Fruman told him that the men were only seeking a meeting with Zelensky: “There was no mention of any terms, military aid or whatever they are talking about it — it’s false,” said Mr. Dowd, who represents Mr. Fruman along with the lawyer Todd Blanche.
On Friday, Shefir acknowledged the meeting with Parnas and Fruman, but said they did not raise the issue of military aid.
“We did not treat Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman as official representatives, and therefore we did not consider that they could speak on behalf of the US Government,” Shefir said.
Parnas’s lawyer Bondy challenged the Ukrainian official’s statement: “It would simply defy reason for Mr. Shefir to have attended a meeting with Mr. Parnas if he did not believe Mr. Parnas spoke for the President, and also for Mr. Parnas not to have conveyed the President’s message at this meeting.”