Lawyer linked to Trump sanctioned for illegally funding Republican campaigns
Lev Parnas in front of criminal court on October 18, 2021 in New York City.
Photo: David Dee Delgado / Getty Images
Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman and attorney who is a partner in Rudolph W. Giuliani, was convicted on Friday of using foreign funds to try to influence political candidates through illegal campaign donations, according The Washington Post ..
To the federal jury of the U.S. District Court: In Manhattan it took less than a day to find that Parnas committed fraud through illegal donations to various state and federal candidates that were funded by a Russian financier. Parnas He was also convicted of charges related to a donation of $ 325,000 in 2018 to a joint fundraising committee that supported the then president. Donald trump.
Prosecutors told jury that illegal fundraising efforts documented in text messages and other evidence from the trial gave Parnas access to elected officials and candidates. They showed pictures of Parnas with Trump and Giuliani, who was the president’s personal attorney, speaking at high-level political fundraisers.
Another man, Andrey Kukushin, He was also convicted by the same jury in the same court, a day after prosecutors and defense attorneys rested their cases, following a two-week trial, according CNBC.
Both men were charged and convicted of using money from a Russian man called Andrey Muraviev for donations to US political candidates in an alleged effort to start a recreational marijuana business. Foreigners are prohibited from making political donations in the United States.
Parnas He was also convicted of making illegal donations to Republican-supporting political action committees (PACs), which included a super PAC of Donald trump.
Parnas, a Florida resident who was born in the former Soviet Union, previously played a role in Trump’s first impeachment trial, and cooperated with Democratic investigators in that case.
Parnas had helped Giuliani, and in turn, to Trump, when it had withheld the military aid approved by Congress for that country while pressured its president to investigate Democrat Joe Biden. Giuliani, who acted as Trump’s attorney and amplified his false claims about losing the 2020 election to Biden solely because of widespread electoral fraud, is a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York.
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