People deny knowing Parnas. Then a they show up in a photo with him.https://t.co/N1kNAiXeSa pic.twitter.com/3zUwQO4I1O
— The Fix (@thefix) January 16, 2020
Maybe the way to get McCarthy to stop saying Putin pays Trump was for Putin pay McCarthy https://t.co/RrPhvpnhrn
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 15, 2020
The article itself looks at the entire picture of the donations into greater depth.
It's a #longread, mapping out how — through joint fundraising committees and PACs — Parnas and Fruman's donations reached so many politicians and entities. https://t.co/0SHsaWDp3i
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) January 15, 2020
Two weeks out from the 2016 elections, a first-time donor born in Ukraine lit up the map of the Republican Party with a $50,000 cash donation to Donald Trump’s joint fundraising committee.
By cutting just one check to Trump Victory Committee — well before he became a central figure in the impeachment of the president he helped elect — Lev Parnas left an indelible mark on two national and 20 state Republican entities.
Trump Victory subdivided his contribution into $33,400 for the Republican National Committee and $2,700 to Trump, the then-maximum allowable donations. The remainder went to GOP entities crisscrossing the country from New York to California, each receiving a modest sum of $661.90.
Official paperwork from the donation lists Parnas an employee of the Fraud Guarantee, the same company Parnas used to hire Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in a relationship that has drawn scrutiny from federal prosecutors.
Three years later, down to the same month, the Justice Department on Oct. 10 unsealed an indictment of Parnas for using a straw donor and laundering foreign money into U.S. elections. Federal prosecutors claim he and his Fraud Guarantee co-owner, Igor Fruman, used the shell company Global Energy Producers to funnel $325,000 in foreign cash into America First Action, a Trump super-PAC.
Federal records show that the total donations from Parnas, Fruman, Global Energy Producers and an alter ego identified by prosecutors exceeded $620,000.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader of the Democrat-controlled House, would later redirect to charity the $2,700 campaign contribution he received from Parnas, as well as a $2,173 contribution from Fruman to Majority Committee PAC, McCarthy’s leadership political action committee…
Through Protect the House, Fruman under his alias “Furman” funneled $2,445.34 to McCarthy’s Majority Committee PAC. McCarthy won his race, but his party lost enough members to transform him into the minority leader.
Parnas separately donated $2,700 to McCarthy, who claims to have returned the money to charity.
McCarthy did not respond to a detailed inquiry about Parnas and Fruman’s donations to him and the GOP.
For months, Parnas’ attorney Bondy has been clamoring for his client to testify before Congress, and Parnas already has begun sharing the contents of his iPhone and other evidence with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Bondy has goaded Congressman McCarthy and Vice President Pence with tweets showing photos of them with his client, bearing the hashtag #LetLevSpeak and #LevRemembers.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment to detailed questions about Trump and Pence’s relationship to Parnas — including a $5,000 in 2018 to the vice president’s Great America Committee PAC…
McCarthy and Parnas also attended fundraisers in summer 2018 for McCarthy and Pence’s joint fundraising committee Protect the House and America First Action Leadership Summit, benefiting Trump’s super-PAC. Attendance didn’t come cheap, with donors forking out up to $250,000 to walk through the door. These events, large-scale affairs for big-dollar donors, were hosted at the Trump International Hotel in Washington…
These boys really get around. Is @GOPLeader Kevin envious of the time they spent with @SteveScalise . Or do they not mind sharing? pic.twitter.com/GnoOklvgWm
— Jackie P-R (@JackiePR3) January 15, 2020
I'm shocked! Not. pic.twitter.com/L3u4zLTki8
— Laura Apollo (@lauraapollo) January 15, 2020
Patricia Kayden
chopper
i seem to remember a previous president warning us all loudly about citizens united opening the floodgates of foreign money into our election system.
The Dangerman
WTF? Ken Starr? Dershowitz?
Trump could have Lusty The Clown (Krusty’s less successful brother), Alex Cora (I hear he’s not busy), and this months Centerfold be his attorneys and not a single vote would change. Why is making us listen to these assholes on TV?
Jay
@Patricia Kayden:
well, Jay Seculow, The Insane Clown POSus’s “Official Attorney” was named last night by Les Parnus as one of Team Doltus’s Ukraine Blackmailers,
MAGA, Making Attorneys Get Attorneys!
pat
OT, but what is going on with the pet calendar?
chopper
@Patricia Kayden:
considering the fact that for the past 40 years trump has hired lawyers to make problematic women ‘go away’, these are just the sort of guys that are the first to pop into his head.
Another Scott
New Yorker (from October):
The story that Parnas is a “Giuliani associate” tries to cover up the elephant in the room. Parnas has known and worked for/with Trump for decades.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
JPL
@chopper: Justice Kennedy said that wouldn’t happen…
Jay
Jay
Alexa, order all the red wool and push pins,
chopper
@JPL:
alito, actually.
joel hanes
@JPL:
Justice Kennedy’s son is high up in Deutsche Bank, which unaccountably continued to loan money to Donald Trump when every other bank declined. There’s some evidence that those loans were underwritten by Russian oligarchs.
zhena gogolia
I thought this was a good aphorism.
Roger Moore
@The Dangerman:
I can think of two reasons:
A) Because he can’t get anyone better
B) To rub our noses in the fact the fix is in
Jay
ReThug Message Discipline: Example #234,862 (2019-2020)
zhena gogolia
@Roger Moore:
Bingo.
Jay
Amir Khalid
As the Republican party continues its devolution from political force to criminal gang, it is losing its capacity to conceal its crimes. What its predecessors in political corruption did behind closed doors, it now documents with selfies.
zhena gogolia
Okay, could some of the Sanders fans here explain to me why DJT is so concerned for his welfare?
germy
Why does #45 need all these lawyers when he has McTurtle running things?
Jerry
@chopper: I seem to remember Alito angrily shaking his head at that, too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL:
And John Roberts said we no longer needed the protections of the Voting Right Act.
germy
“When the boomers die out, everything will be finally good.”
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Racism disappeared in 2008, as we all know.
PJ
@zhena gogolia: Trump also expressed concern about unfairness to Bernie by Democrats in 2016.
I think it’s obvious that Bernie is the candidate that Republicans would most like to see running against Trump in November.
ziggy
I can’t stop thinking about the Parnas interviews. I personally found him very believable, because of–1) his affect, 2) I can’t imagine any benefit that he would get for lying at this point (his testimony has zero value if his story doesn’t line up), 3) his story does line up, he has receipts, and it fits the storyline and explains things in a way that makes sense (as much sense as this insane story can!), 4) he seems to be a character much like Michael Cohen, in that he worshiped Trump for a long time (decades apparently), but being scorned by Trump hurts so much he is ready to bury him.
The part that is really chilling to me is when he talked about Barr and the fear he had of Barr’s DOJ. Particularly when he said (to paraphrase) that Trump did not have the power in 2017 and 2018 that he does, and the reason is because he has Barr. He seemed to imply that having Barr in place created more fear and compliance with congressmen and senators also. Parnas has a much closer view of the situation and characters, and I find that insight very disturbing.
Gelfling 545
“Trump Victory subdivided his contribution into $33,400 for the Republican National Committee and $2,700 to Trump,”
I bet Trump was pissed!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Trump knows that Bernie didn’t call Trump a liar in 2016 when Trump sent out similar tweets.
catclub
As to Trump not knowing Parnas, that letter from Sekulow to Dowd, saying that Trump was ok with Dowd being Parnas’s lawyer, is important proof otherwise. He knew his name, he knew why he mattered.
Kay
@Another Scott:
The low quality Trump hires need to be called out when they make that dishonest distinction “i came here LEGALLY”
Trump has limited legal immigration too. The fact is if they had supported a President like Trump when they tried to come here they would have been less likely to have been allowed in
They’re hypocrites. They benefited from something they seek to deny others. They need to own up to that.
ciotog
Wow, the company name “Fraud Guarantee” is certainly on the nose!
Kay
I don’t think I can watch the proceedings if Ken Starr is part of them. I really loathe him- smarmy, sanctimonious, a liar- he’s a complete fucking fraud and it’s outrageous that he has had such a lucrative career in law-pundity and marketing when there are thousands of more talented and honest lawyers out there. Tens of thousands.
If he rose to the top the system is broken. Another mediocrity who we deserve to be rid of. 30 years of this asshole is enough.
joel hanes
Related:
One spider in this web department:
John Solomon is not a reporter. He’s a political operative with close ties to Firtash. Someone needs to pull on this thread and confront him with the evidence.
AliceBlue
What happened to Dershowitz? Didn’t he used to be somewhat liberal in the past?
Jay
Jay
@joel hanes:
it is a common journalistic practice to send your drafts of an article to your Ukrainian co-conspirators for editting and input before publishing.//
The Hill still has his articles up with no addenums or notices.
Jay
@AliceBlue:
nope,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/alan-dershowitz-devils-advocate
Baud
@Kay: He’s awful, but he’s still a respectable figure to GOP senators, as well as the Chief Justice, so that’s probably why he was chosen.
Jay
AliceBlue
@Jay: I remember reading his book “Supreme Injustice: How the Court Hijacked Election 2000.” I guess that’s where I got the idea that he wasn’t a scumbag at some point in the past.
@Jay:
mrmoshpotato
OT but it’s an open thread, and I’m tired as hell of this completely preventable shitshow.
I hear Fred’s signing books more and more.
Jay
Funny how far a $15k bribe goes when it’s for dirty deeds, done dirt cheap,
Obligatory,
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UIE4UjBtx-o
Jay
patrick II
@AliceBlue:
He met Epstein and decided teenage girls were more important than politics.
patrick II
@Baud:
Which tells you something about the Chief Justice.
Bill Arnold
@The Dangerman:
Seriously, Dershowitz wants to be dragged through the mud again about his “old enough to bleed, old enough to breed” opinion piece?
Statutory Rape is an Outdated Concept (Alan M. Dershowitz, 5/7/1997[1]), and more recently an Epstein-related pedophilia allegation?
For maximum effect these could be televised vocal commentary about the DJT’s legal team.
Probably not, probably best to just (live-)eviscerate his (and Starr’s) legal arguments. Though why not both?
[1] I cannot find the original, but memory-holing is getting harder to do.
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
He probably cultivates that; it can make opponents think less clearly.
sdhays
@germy: Fear not! He won’t be paying them. (I assume.)
Chris Johnson
@PJ: Trump fears Biden most, is not afraid of Bernie at all, and doesn’t believe women can be elected President.
Russia is most confident of being able to effectively use Bernie in the event he wins, is probably most afraid of Warren, and if they can’t have Trump they would like to have Biden. Not because he is theirs, but because they’ve got enough stuff on him that they feel he can be divisive. This is why they’ve been working so hard to find shit on Biden. They don’t have to work to find shit on Bernie, they’ve already got it and they already have the wingnuts ready to go full terrorist against Bernie (just because he is put forward by Russia does not mean they intend to be nice to him and he’d better figure that one out real quick)
So with Biden, Trump is personally threatened but Russia thinks they have his number and have been propping him up to some extent. With Bernie, as you can see both Trump and Russia are actively trying to lift him. With Warren, Trump thinks he’s pwned her just with ‘pocohontas!’ because he’s a fool, but Russia is WAY more worried about her and has deployed the flying Twitter monkeys, bigtime.
I suspect Russia fucked with Harris’s staff and played a role in her downfall, because I see ’em behind every couch these days. And I suspect Russia is pushing Buttigieg, largely because they think if he wins the primary, they can just run a gay panic play on him while doctoring the election completely, and then afterwards tell the story that it was the gay panic thing that doomed him.
gratuitous
My caption for that picture of McCarthy with Parnas and Fruman: The long-awaited sequel to “Two Girls, One Cup,” I give you “Three Men, One Neck.”