Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

Video shows Rudy Giuliani hanging out with recently busted Soviet-born pals

New video has surfaced showing Rudy Giuliani yucking it up with his two Soviet-born pals — who were busted by the feds this week for allegedly breaking campaign finance laws — as they send greetings to a rabbi in Ukraine.

The 22-second, 2018 video, obtained by the Jewish Insider, shows Lev Parnas seated at what the website says appeared to be the Trump International Hotel in DC with Igor Fruman to his right and Giuliani to his left.

Parnas, in a red V-neck shirt and gold chain, waves at the camera and says ”Hi Moshe, how you doing? I’m here with Rudy,” as a grinning Giuliani, his dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar and his tie untied, stares into the camera before offering his own greetings.

“Moshe, how are ya baby? Ha, ha, ha. I love that picture, I love that picture. Can’t wait to come back!” the former mayor says while giving a big thumbs up.

Parnas and Fruman, in a printed shirt unbuttoned to show his chest, then tell the rabbi that they’ll see him soon and that they love him.

The video was posted on the Facebook page of the Anatevka Jewish Refugee Community, a charity set up to help Ukrainian Jews fleeing war in eastern Ukraine in 2018.

Both Parnas and Fruman are on the board of the charity, and the three were sending greetings to Rabbi Moshe Azman, who heads the organization, according to the website.

Parnas and Fruman, were nabbed Wednesday night at Dulles International Airport in Virginia while trying to catch a flight with one-way tickets to Vienna, and appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday.

The pair in May 2018 contributed $325,000 to a pro-Trump political action committee called America First Action, and the donation was falsely reported as coming from a purported natural gas company, according to an indictment charging the pair.

The two men falsely claimed the company, called GEP, was “a real business enterprise” and that “its major purpose is energy trading, not political activity,” the indictment said.

In fact, the feds said, the company had no real business, and it was unclear where the PAC cash came from.

Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said the pair made also made illegal donations to advance their interests and those of a Ukrainian official who wanted then-US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch fired.

The two worked with Giuliani and former GOP Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, who both urged Trump to can her despite her unblemished career.

Trump — facing impeachment proceedings for asking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to probe the Bidens — recalled her in May and called her “bad news” in his July 25 call with Zelenskey.

Yovanovitch was on Capitol Hill testifying behind closed doors on Friday.

Parnas a Ukrainian, and Fruman, who was born in Belarus, helped introduce Giuliani into a top Ukrainian political circle, and Giuliani has said they helped him probe Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Giuliani and Trump have called them corrupt, though there is no known evidence of wrongdoing.

Giuliani told Reuters last week that “Parnas and Igor helped me on certain things. They helped me with logistics. They know the Ukraine, they speak Russian. They helped me locate people in a few cases.”

The pair’s lawyer, Trump’s former lawyer John Dowd, declined to comment on the arrests.

Trump said he did not know the pair, and has denied wrongdoing and has called the impeachment probe a partisan smear.

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