Spoiler: If this was a movie plot, nobody would believe it.
It's here. washingtonpost.com/context/u-s-vs…
Summary:
Election laws protect elections from illegal foreign influence and provide transparency to maintain public confidence in elections. . .
They concealed the scheme by laundering money through limited liability bank accounts and straw donors, and making false statements to the FEC.
Fruman is a US citizen born in Belarus.
Kukushkin is a US citizen born in Ukraine.
Correia, a US citizen, born here.
Foreign National-1: A Russian citizen and businessman. (Has anyone reported who this is? If so, I haven't seen it.)
They created Global Energy Producers (GEP) an LLC to funnel the money.
Parnas and Fruman sought assistance from Congressman 1 to remove then-U.S. Ambassador [Marie Yovanovitch]
From June 2018 to April 2019, the four defendants conspired . . .
Sept. 2018: Defendants met with Foreign National 1 in Las Vegas.
(They also attended political fundraiser for a NV Candidate-1.)
Foreign National-1 was to be a source of funding for between $1 and $2 million in donations and contributions. . .
They ignored the deadlines for applying for licenses. They funded lots of money to candidates, but “the Business venture did not come to fruition.”
[Was the business fake all along?]
That's the end of the summary.
Remember: Indictments don’t contain all the evidence known to the prosecutors.
Dowd, attorney representing Parnas and Fruman, wrote a letter last week to lawmakers stating that Parnas and Fruman “assisted Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump.”
Less than a week later, his clients were arrested while trying to leave the country, and jailed.🤦♀️ (A little embarrassing?)
Now the House subpoenaed those records.
vox.com/2019/10/10/209…
Parnas and Fruman claimed in interviews to have attended an 8-person session with Trump in D.C. to discuss the 2018 elections.
Sessions says there was no correlation; he sent the letter because he believed it, not because he received money😂
However. . .
pbs.org/newshour/polit…
May 10: Sessions wrote to Congress that he had “notice of concrete evidence” that the ambassador had disdain for Trump.
Parnas owns a company called Fraud Guarantee.
Fruman owns a beach club in Odessa, a stronghold of Russian organized crime, called Mafia Rave.
Mafia Rave? Fraud Guarantee?
Do these guys have a sense of irony?
Or are they extremely literal?
Firtash is under house arrest in Vienna.
Parnas and Fruman were arrested while trying to leave the country with one-way tickets to Vienna.
Fun screenshot from newyorker.com/news/our-colum… ⤵️
Attorney John Dowd is representing Parnas and Fruman.
John Dowd also represents Paul Manafort.
We don't know who is paying John Dowd.
vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/t…
@emptywheel points out that we also don’t know who is paying Giuliani.
nytimes.com/2019/10/11/us/……
nbcnews.com/politics/trump……
Apparently Firtash is financing the activities of Parnas and Fruman.
usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
Whew, right?
facebook.com/terikanefielda…