Politics

Who’s who in the Giuliani-Ukraine search warrants?

KIFI

By CNN Newsource

Published May 7, 2021 4:13 AM

The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Rudy Giuliani involves an international cast of characters: Trump White House allies, Republican lawyers, Ukrainian oligarchs, diplomats, right-wing journalists and other figures who aren’t household names.

The probe burst into public view last week when authorities raided Giuliani’s home and office in New York City, where he was mayor two decades ago. Investigators were armed with a search warrant that Giuliani’s lawyer said mentioned an investigation into potentially illegal foreign lobbying.

Giuliani has denied all wrongdoing and claimed the investigation itself is unconstitutional, and he said on Fox News last week that the “Department of Injustice” should be “investigated for blatantly violating my constitutional rights.”

Here’s a breakdown of the dozen Americans and Ukrainians who CNN has confirmed were mentioned by name in the search warrants against Giuliani. Other people and entities may have been mentioned in the documents, but CNN has confirmed only these 12 names at this point.

Businessman Lev Parnas

Ukrainian American businessman who is based in Florida.
Key player in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
His company paid $500,000 to Giuliani for consulting work in 2018.
Met with Ukrainians and brokered meetings between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials, who were pressured to help Trump’s reelection bid by spreading conspiracies about candidate Joe Biden.
Was involved in efforts to oust the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. This is a key part of the Giuliani investigation, according to The New York Times.
Indicted on campaign finance charges in October 2019. He pleaded not guilty and goes on trial later this year.
Publicly flipped on Trump and Giuliani and implicated them in the anti-Biden schemes in Ukraine. Assisted House Democrats with their impeachment inquiry against Trump in 2019.

Businessman Igor Fruman

Belarusian American businessman who is based in Florida.
Worked closely with Parnas and Giuliani to dig up dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine, and attended some of the meetings with the Ukrainians.
He was with Parnas and Trump at an intimate dinner for major campaign donors in April 2018, where Parnas urged Trump to fire Yovanovitch. Fruman recorded the audio on his phone, which was later publicly released.
Indicted on campaign finance charges alongside Parnas. He has pleaded not guilty.
He has maintained a low profile since his arrest in October 2019.

Ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin

Ukraine’s top prosecutor from 2015 to 2016, under then-President Petro Poroshenko.
As vice president, Biden pressured Poroshenko to fire Shokin, citing Shokin’s unwillingness to crack down on corruption. This view was shared by many other Western leaders.
He later allied with Giuliani to spread false claims of corruption against Biden. He met with Giuliani in Kiev and promoted false claims in a propaganda-style documentary aired by the pro-Trump outlet OANN.
He falsely claimed he was fired because he was investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company where Biden’s son served on the board. (US officials later testified that the opposite was true — Shokin was fired for not doing enough to investigate corruption.)
According to House Democrats’ impeachment report, Shokin hired Republican lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova “for the purpose of collecting evidence” about Biden’s role in his firing “and presenting such evidence to U.S. and foreign authorities.” The retainer was for $25,000 per month, according to The New York Times.

Ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko

Succeeded Shokin as Ukraine’s top prosecutor. Was a close Poroshenko ally.
He had phone calls and meetings with Giuliani, where the Bidens were discussed. They met in Ukraine, New York City, Hungary and Poland. Parnas and Fruman attended some of these meetings.
He also participated in the OANN documentary, where he promoted many of the debunked allegations about the Biden family. He gave interviews to right-wing columnist John Solomon, who repeated the same anti-Biden and pro-Trump conspiracies.
He hired Toensing and diGenova to represent him “in meetings with U.S. officials regarding alleged ‘evidence’ of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections,” according to a retainer agreement cited in the House Democrats’ impeachment report. The alleged Ukrainian meddling is actually a pro-Trump conspiracy theory that denies Russian meddling.
Giuliani considered taking Lutsenko on as a client, according to The New York Times. There were drafted retainer agreements where Giuliani would represent Lutsenko or Lutsenko’s office regarding corruption issues.

Ex-Ukrainian official Kostiantyn Kulyk

He was a senior Ukrainian prosecutor who worked under Lutsenko. He was involved in the country’s investigation into Burisma. He was fired in 2019 after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took over from Poroshenko.
He wrote a dossier of disinformation about Biden, his son Hunter Biden and the Burisma case, according to The New York Times, and promoted these false claims to several pro-Trump figures in the US. Many of these false claims were presented to Giuliani at a meeting in New York City.
He gave interviews about these topics to Solomon and was quoted in many of Solomon’s columns, which have since been discredited.
Along with Lutsenko, he hired Toensing and diGenova to represent him “in meetings with US officials” about supposed Ukrainian meddling in 2016.
He was sanctioned by the US Treasury in January. The announcement said he “formed an alliance” with a known Russian agent “to spread false accusations of international corruption” about the Bidens.
Years ago, he was indicted on corruption charges in Ukraine and accused of bringing politically motivated cases against his opponents, according to The New York Times.

Lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova

Well-known Republican lawyers who are married and have a law practice together.
They signed retainer deals with Shokin, Lutsenko and Kulyk, according to the House Democrats’ impeachment report.
They also worked for Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch who has been indicted on foreign bribery charges in the US. He denies all wrongdoing. Parnas helped connect them to Firtash. They later privately urged then-US Attorney General William Barr to drop the charges against Firtash.
Met with Parnas, Fruman and Giuliani in DC to discuss their Ukraine dealings.
They are known to spread pro-Trump conspiracies about the “deep state.”
Federal investigators seized Toensing’s cell phone pursuant to a search warrant last week. Her lawyer told CNN she always followed the “highest legal and ethical standards” and is not a target of the probe.

Right-wing columnist John Solomon

Conservative political commentator who was a top editor at The Washington Times until 2015.
Throughout 2019, he wrote columns for The Hill that were filled with many of the same pro-Trump and anti-Biden conspiracy theories that were being pushed by Giuliani and his Ukrainian allies. He interviewed Lutsenko and Kulyk, who pushed the conspiracy theories, which have since been debunked.
Phone records unearthed during impeachment proceedings in 2019 revealed that there were regular contacts between Solomon, Giuliani, Toensing, Parnas and other Trump allies while he published those columns.
The Hill later conducted an internal review and criticized Solomon’s columns about Ukraine. Its review said some of the main ideas he put forward were “disputed by officials in both Kyiv and Washington” and that he should have disclosed that diGenova and Toensing were his attorneys when citing them.

Ex-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

Served as President of Ukraine from 2014 until 2019, when he was defeated by Zelensky.
He is an oligarch — and one of the richest men in Ukraine — who founded a successful confectionery company.
Met with Parnas and Fruman in early 2019 during the Ukrainian presidential election campaign. Parnas later said he offered a quid pro quo on behalf of Trump and Giuliani: that Trump would endorse Poroshenko if Poroshenko announced investigations into the Biden family. The deal never happened.

Ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Glib Zagoriy

He served in the Ukrainian parliament as a member of Poroshenko’s party.
He attended the January 2019 meeting in New York City with Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman, Lutsenko and Ukrainian prosecutor Gyunduz Mamedov, according to notes compiled by Giuliani and given to the State Department.
During the meeting, Lutsenko pushed discredited claims of corruption by the Bidens.

Ukrainian prosecutor Gyunduz Mamedov

He is currently the deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine.
He attended the January 2019 meeting in New York City with Zagoriy, Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman and Lutsenko, according to notes compiled by Giuliani and given to the State Department.
During the meeting, Lutsenko pushed discredited claims of corruption by the Bidens.

Florida businessman David Correia

A business associate of Parnas and Fruman who was indicted with them in 2019.
He is a former professional golfer and restaurateur.
He has met Trump and posted photos of their meetings on social media.
He pleaded guilty last year to charges of defrauding investors and lying to the Federal Election Commission. He is not cooperating with investigators as part of a plea deal.

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