The net seems to be tightening around Rudolph W. Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal attorney. Federal agents have arrested yet another one of his associates. Like Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, David Correia was arrested at a major international airport, this time New York City’s Kennedy Airport. It is not yet known if he was arrested arriving at or attempting to depart from JFK.
Correia is one of four men, along with Parnas, Fruman, and Andrey Kukushkin, who have been indicted by U.S. attorneys in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiring to circumvent federal laws against foreign influence. The foursome faces charges of falsifying records and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and two counts of conspiracy.
Reported CBS News,
"This investigation is about corrupt behavior — deliberate law breaking," said William Sweeney, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York office.
Both men donated to Republican campaigns, and gave $325,000 to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC in 2018. The indictment accuses them of setting up a phony company to conceal the source of the contributions.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested at Washington-Dulles International Airport only hours after lunching with Giuliani. The pair were scheduled to meet with congressional investigators the next day. Kukushkin was arrested in San Francisco.
While Parnas and Fruman were working with Giuliani on the shady Ukraine deal, the four Giuliani associates were also looking to get into the lucrative marijuana dispensary business. Talking Points Memo has a breakdown of their scheme:
And while Parnas and Fruman’s connections to Rudy’s search for Trump-friendly political dirt is well known, their alleged business partners Correia and Kukushkin are much less public figures.
The quartet was indicted for their alleged crimes connected to their attempt to establish a marijuana venture in the states. The indictment describes a scheme in which they donated to various political candidates using an unnamed foreign national’s money in order to gain influence and benefit their venture. The indictment alleges the foreign national’s donations were made through the four American citizens, another violation.
Scheming to funnel foreign money into Republican coffers, courting Russian oligarchs, and corrupting foreign governments for personal political gain—it’s the modern Republican Party in a nutshell. As long as Donald Trump remains in power, every Republican in the country owns this shame.
