If there is one hard and fast rule of investigating corruption, it is this: Always follow the money. As federal investigators look into whether Rudy Giuliani and his Russian associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, violated campaign finance laws, failed to register as foreign agents, and conspired to interfere in the 2020 American elections, investigators have apparently been following the money, and they now have new questions about whether Rudy Giuliani and his associates were about to get rich, or, in the case of Giuliani, richer. From The Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, pitched their new company, and plans for a Poland-to-Ukraine pipeline carrying U.S. natural gas, in meetings with Ukrainian officials and energy executives this year, saying the project had the support of the Trump administration, according to people briefed on the meetings. In many of the same meetings, the two men also pushed for assistance on investigations into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and alleged interference by Ukraine in the 2016 U.S. election, some of the people said.
A win-win for Rudy and the Russians, right? Smear Trump’s possible 2020 opponent and gain extreme wealth in the process. But it gets even more damning. The pipeline pitches came during meetings where they were also pushing for investigations into Trump’s political rivals, or, more accurately, a public statement announcing such an investigation. The Wall Street Journal reports that the pipeline business wasn’t a stand-alone; it was part of the “essential package” necessary to get the blocked financial aid Congress had already approved for Ukraine.
The Ukrainians understood the pipeline to be “part of the essential package” Mr. Giuliani and his associates were pushing, often mentioned immediately after the demand for investigations, said Kenneth F. McCallion, a New York lawyer who represents a number of Ukrainian individuals who learned of the pipeline deal, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who left office in 2010.
In fact, those meetings were likely only possible because Donald Trump himself was directing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and others to “talk to Rudy,” something reflected multiple times in the readout of the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky.
For his part, Giuliani denied being a partner in Global Energy Producers, the shady startup pipeline company Parnas and Fruman were pitching. Hard to imagine that he was unaware they were claiming he was a partner while Parnas was posting one photo or video after another of himself with Giuliani. Everywhere you turned, there was Giuliani with Parnas and Fruman. In fact, they were so close that Giuliani agreed to be the godfather of Parnas’ son!
At the end of the day, Rudy Giuliani appears to be in serious legal trouble. And lest you think Donald Trump might be close to throwing Giuliani overboard to save his hide, consider what Giuliani said to a reporter on Thursday after he was asked if he was concerned that Trump would throw him under the bus: “I’m not, but I do have very, very good insurance, so if he does, all my hospital bills will be paid.”
NBC notes that his lawyer immediately interjected that Giuliani was joking. As if we haven’t all seen enough movies about mobsters to know that they say what they mean and mean what they say, even if they are “joking.” The message Giuliani is sending seems clear to this observer—he knows where and how all the bodies are buried—from the 2016 collusion all the way up to this very day.