President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani turned to an unlikely pair of Florida fixers to help in a quest to get Ukrainian authorities to investigate Joe Biden, documents show.
This Facebook screen shot provided by The Campaign Legal Center, shows from left, Donald Trump, Jr., Tommy Hicks, Jr., Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, posted on May 21, 2018.
The big May 2018 donation to American First Action was part of a flurry of political spending tied to Parnas and Fruman, with at least $478,000 in donations flowing to GOP campaigns and PACs in little more than two months. He said the Ukrainian government has access to information on alleged wrongdoing by the Bidens, but that the U.S. government proved indifferent to receiving it through official channels. Thanks to his friendship with Giuliani, Parnas said, he and Fruman became the best people to get it into the Trump administration’s hands.
Campaign finance watchdogs first raised concerns about the source of the $325,000 donation to America First Action, a political action committee supporting Trump’s re-election, shortly after it was first disclosed last year. More than half of the proceeds from the $3 million loan appear to have been used to pay off a prior bank mortgage on Fruman’s condo, with the remaining $1.2 million wired from a Miami lawyer’s trust account to a corporate entity controlled by Parnas called Aaron Investments I.
Under federal elections law, political donations must be attributed to the person or entity actually providing the money as a way to avoid “straw donations.” That the source of the donation was not the same corporation as the one listed on the PAC’s federal disclosure report, Global Energy Producers, is a potential violation of campaign finance law.
Despite receiving the seven-figure payout last year from the condo loan, court records indicate Parnas and Fruman were still scrambling for cash.
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