THREAD: Have we reached the point where Giuliani’s role in Ukraine-gate no longer looks like an outtake from a bad Coen Brothers movie and is creating a far more serious legal situation that should be setting off alarm bells inside DOJ comparable to James Comey's firing? 1/ 
Bear with me as I lay out some facts. They exceed the unreality of a Gary Shteyngart novel. Yet based on my reading of these facts, several questions readily jump out. I don’t have all of the answers to these questions but think it’s worth asking them. 2/
Amb. Yovanovitch’s Oct 11 Capitol Hill partially overshadowed revelations about ties between Trump World and a key Ukrainian oligarch, Dmytro Firtash. It’s important to read Yovanovitch’s testimony in the context of Firtash’s longrunning problems with the US Government. 3/
The other point of comparison that immediately comes to mind is an ongoing Federal criminal investigation of Elliot Broidy, a former top Trump fundraiser and the former vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign. More on him in a second. 4/
WSJ reported on Oct 10 that Lev Parnas, one of the Giuliani associates arrested by the Feds, had been hired by Firtash’s defense team as a translator. wsj.com/articles/two-f… nytimes.com/2018/03/25/us/… @aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus 5/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus That’s a curiously menial role for Parnas who presented himself as a high roller and whose campaign contributions gave him access to Trump and other GOP leaders. (Lawyer John Dowd says they had a similar role for Giuliani on behalf of President Trump) 6/
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@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus Firtash's defense is now led by FoxNews regulars Joe DiGenova & Victoria Toensing. (Trump tried to hire them for the Mueller inquiry.) Chris Wallace reported on Sept 29 that they were working “off the books” with Giuliani to find dirt on the Bidens. foxnews.com/transcript/hig… 7/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus In reality ties betw Parnas/Fruman and Firtash run much deeper. They were “working for Firtash" before "Parnas joined [Firtash’s] legal team…Firtash has paid their expenses in the past. Their costs include private jet charters..& foreign travel to Vienna.”reut.rs/35nlQVf
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus Back to Yovanovitch. She carefully laid out how the West’s long-running push for a crackdown on high-level Ukrainian corruption stepped on a lot of important people’s toes and some figures in Ukraine used their ties to Giuliani and Trump to disrupt anti-corruption efforts. 9/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus Arguably the single biggest set of toes belongs to Firtash. He was arrested immediately after the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine and has been stuck in Vienna fighting extradition to the U.S. after being charged by the Feds with FCPA violations. 10/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus Since the early 2000s Firtash was at the epicenter of multi-billion dollar corrupt schemes that dominate the Russian-Ukrainian natural gas trade. This murky trade, largely done via intermediaries, is the main vehicle for Putin and others to sink their claws into Ukraine. 11/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus It’s also good to think of the gas trade as Exhibit #1 for comingling of the Russian govt & organized crime. Firtash serves as the топ gas trade intermediary for the Kremlin and a Russian mob figure Semyon Mogilevich who’s on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List & helps control it 12/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus Firtash acknowledged as much in a leaked 2008 conversation with then US Amb Bill Taylor (yes, the same Bill Taylor who wrote the famous text message lambasting Trump’s demand for a quid pro quo from Zelenskyy). theguardian.com/world/2010/dec… 13/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus It’s been all too easy to get a chuckle out of Parnas and Fruman’s bumbling hijinks after they joined the ranks of top GOP/Trump donors, despite having such a long trail of bad debts, evictions, and sketchy relationships back in Ukraine. 14/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus But something about them doesn’t add up. Whose funds were they using to buy their way into the ranks of top GOP donors? Whose interests were best served by their efforts to mount attacks on US officials like Amb Yovanovitch? The Federal indictment is conspicuously silent. 15/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus What then to make of the revelation that Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles last Thursday while en route to Vienna? Or that Giuliani planned to leave for Vienna, Firtash’s home base, the following day? theatlantic.com/politics/archi… @elainaplott 16/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott My hunch is that Parnas and Fruman may have been frontmen for Firtash, dangling info that was too good about Ukraine's role in 2016 to lure people close to Trump. Was Firtash trying to get himself out of a jam with DOJ? Did Giuliani, wittingly or unwittingly, play any role? 17/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott Bloomber's @nwadhams broke a story about Trump and Giuliani seeking special favors from DOJ/State Dept for one of the latter’s clients, a convicted Turkish gold trader who had violated Iran sanctions. Rex Tillerson thought these requests were illegal
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@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott @nwadhams Back to Elliot Broidy. The Feds are investigating a Malaysian financier who reportedly asked Broidy to provide similar help. Broidy requested a $75 million fee from Jho Low if he succeeded in getting DOJ to drop charges in the case. wsj.com/articles/trump… 19/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott @nwadhams That brings us back to where I started. Does this scandal echo the circumstances that led to the naming of Robert Mueller? Was Giuliani ever involved in seeking special favors for Firtash? Did he or anyone else ( DiGenova? Toensing?) raise this case with Trump or others? 20/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott @nwadhams Key question: who's the right person to investigate this? Surely the US Atty's office in Illinois, which indicted Firtasy, has been watching him like hawks. SDNY is now reportedly investigating Giuliani. Did any of Firtash's team touch people at even more senior levels? 21/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott @nwadhams What is AG Barr’s involvement in the search for dirt on the Bidens and conspiracy theories about the 2016 election? Trump told Zelenskyy to contact Barr. Does Barr have a conflict of interest or at least the appearance of one? Does he need to recuse himself? 22/
@aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus @elainaplott @nwadhams Given the very real possibility that Trump’s personal lawyer (Giuliani) and others (DiGenova/Toensing) have clear connections to Firtash, is it conceivable they engaged w himon Firtash’s behalf to subvert the rule of law? If so, that sounds like a job for a special counsel END
ADDENDUM The Reuters team which broke the story about Firtash’s ties to Giuliani’s associates deserves a majorshoutout @AramRoston @karen_freifeld @polinaivanovva
