Thread by @KlasfeldReports

After a week-long whirlwind trial, closing arguments in the case of Lev Parnas and Andrey Kukushkin are about to begin.

Follow along here.

Background from opening statements, @lawcrimenews lawandcrime.com/high-profile/t…

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Cordell Scotten will be delivering summations for the government for an estimated 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Then Parnas's attorney Joseph Bondy is up for less than that.

Kukushkin's lawyer Gerry Lefcourt will be roughly an hour.

AUSA Scotten lays out the conspiracy count for jurors:

"It's clear as day that there was an agreement here."

Scotten on the Russian tycoon whose money Parnas and Kukushkin allegedly funneled: "Andrey Muraviev is the financial resource. He was paying the bills."

Scotten: "It's clear why they're doing this—to get the licenses they need for their cannabis business."

To accomplish this, Scotten says, they needed political support and turned to the people they believed would be Nevada's next governor and AG: Adam Laxalt and Wes Duncan, respectively.

ICYMI: Laxalt's testimony lawandcrime.com/high-profile/n…

Scotten: "This is exactly what straw donations look like."

The prosecutor notes that Muraviev's name is not on any of the forms.

If they thought the donations were legal, why not just put his name on the forms, Scotten asks.

Scotten: "The whole point of a contribution is that a politician likes you."

Scotten says jurors know the defendants "acted willfully" because they read the news about their crimes while they were committing them.

"Parnas's crimes were so notorious that they made the news," and Kukushkin shared that news with Muraviev, he says.

Scotten notes that neither defendant ever voted.

They"acting like diehard partisans," but they "couldn't care less about politics," he notes.

Scotten: "Make no mistake: The purpose behind this conspiracy was influence-buying."

Scotten says that Muraviev had a picture of someone "mooning the Statue of Liberty" as his WhatsApp avatar, and this is whom Kukushkin chose to associate with.

Side note:

Throughout these summations, the prosecutor refers to communications submitted into evidence.

That evidence is typically made public during trial but it has not been released to date by the U.S. Attorney's office for SDNY, so far as I'm aware.

Scotten claims that Parnas made false statements about his company Global Energy Producers in an affidavit:

"If you think what you're doing is legal, you can be honest about it."

Scotten tackles defense argument that only a small portion of the $1 million from Muraviev was allegedly funneled into U.S. elections.

"It’s true he [Muraviev] only got about $150,000 worth of crime, but that’s still a whole lot of crime," the prosecutor said.

Government summation concludes.

10 minute recess.

Bondy up next for Parnas.

Service advisory: I'm going to be pivoting to a pre-trial hearing in the Ghislaine Maxwell case around noon, and my colleague @MarisaRSarnoff will take over on a double-byline story to come.