Thread by @karolcummins

‼️Lev Parnas Dishes on Kushner, Maduro, and Soros

Fiona Hill testified that the Kremlin offered to trade Venezuela for Ukraine.

In other words, she said, the Kremlin would pull out of Venezuela if the U.S. withdrew its support for Ukraine. 

washingtonpost.com/politics/how-g…

Parnas and Giuliani’s Ukraine efforts took them all around Europe, including to London, where they met two associates of indicted Dmytro Firtash, one of whom was on his legal team.

washingtonpost.com/politics/how-g…

Giuliani used the meeting to try to get material from Firtash that would bolster his attacks on Mueller’s probe of Trump.

Giuliani was looking for details on a supposed effort by Mueller prosecutor Weissmann to get Firtash to cooperate w/ their probe.

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Firtash’s lawyers brought a thick pile of documents from his Austrian legal case, Parnas said. 

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Firtash Boeing Titanium

Dmytro Firtash

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1142603256616480768?s=21

After the meeting, two of Giuliani’s allies did join Firtash’s legal team. Toensing and diGenova began representing him in the summer of 2019, and Parnas told Maddow that they worked to score political gifts for Trump from the gas magnate.

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Firtash story - Hail Mary Pass to fight extradition.

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1180870472403050496?s=21

🔑Parnas said they also tried to leverage their Trumpworld connex to help Firtash.

“During the situation that was going on with the Firtash case, Victoria called Ric Grenell because he was the ambassador to Germany & Vienna was in the same orbit there,”

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Amb. Grenell is a major Trump troll, just a more polished version of Hyde if you will, but just as rabid.

He together with Matt Whitaker & Sam Nunberg were involved in the TeamTrump effort to sway the election in Kosovo.

Richard Grenell - Kosovo

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1180180428591747072?s=21

The small group of Trump allies who worked on the Ukraine project also had visibility into other foreign policy efforts–namely, a push to moderate the Trump administration’s hawkish stance toward Venezuela.

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

In April 2018, then-Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) traveled to Caracas and met with Maduro. Months later, in Sept, Sessions gathered with pals in a little-known VIP room at the Trump Hotel BLT Prime restaurant for a follow-up call. Parnas said he was there. 

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Pete Sessions has acknowledged that he met with Parnas & Fruman, and that he wrote in May 2019 to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to ask for ambassador Yavonovitch’s removal.
dallasnews.com/news/politics/…

Reminder: Pete Sessions’s father William Sessions represents Mogilevitch.

https://twitter.com/craigunger/status/1195516343921065984?s=21

https://twitter.com/craigunger/status/1195516343921065984

Parnas said he gleaned from their convo that Maduro and Sessions had hashed out a tentative agreement to give him a way to step down from power.

The plan would be for Maduro to announce free and fair elections, and then leave the country if he lost. 

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

“I think the biggest part of the call was that Maduro was trying to be closer to the United States because he didn’t want to deal with Russia or China because he wanted to somehow move his family here,” Parnas said. 

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Instead of negotiating a soft exit for Maduro, the White House rolled out rounds of punishing sanctions and declared (along with other countries) that his presidency was illegitimate.

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Reminder sanctions feed & fuel the Trump swamp creatures on K Street promising sanction relief for big bucks.

propublica.org/article/how-tr…

Targets of sanctions/tariffs have turned to DC’s K Street law, lobbying & PR firms, especially those people/firms with close ties to TeamTrump.

Pay-to-play mind-set that defines politics in many parts of Africa, Asia, the ME & the former Soviet states.

nytimes.com/2018/12/10/us/…

In the year since Washington recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim head of state, Maduro has shored up his grip on power and drawn his country closer to Russia and China. 

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

This isn’t the only time Venezuela has come up in the context of Ukraine. Fiona Hill testified that the Kremlin offered to trade Venezuela for Ukraine. In other words, she said, the Kremlin would pull out of VZ if the U.S. withdrew its support for Ukraine

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

In October 2018, he attended a dinner in a private suite at Trump Hotel hosted by the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action. The dinner, with around a dozen people, connected Javanka & Tommy Hicks Jr with leaders in the cannabis industry.

thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-dis…

Pot lawsuit may provide clues to Russian funds in Parnas, Fruman straw donor scheme

amp.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…

Ukrainian Andrey Kukushkin, Linked To Giuliani Associates, Arrested In San Francisco On Campaign Finance Violations

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/11/and…