Two associates of Rudy Giuliani who helped the Trump lawyer investigate Joe Biden’s activities in Ukraine were arrested late Wednesday on campaign finance-related charges, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the two Giuliani associates, are expected to appear in federal court on Thursday for arraignment, according to The Journal. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has been investigating the pair.
Parnas and Fruman, who operate businesses in Florida, have donated heavily to political committees supporting Donald Trump. They gave $325,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC in March 2018, and have met with Trump and members of his family.
Parnas and Fruman also worked closely with Giuliani to collect information about Joe Biden and possible Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
It is unclear if the charges are related to Parnas and Fruman’s campaign contributions, their work with Giuliani, or both.
Giuliani has for months pushed the allegation that Biden pressured Ukraine’s president in 2016 to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that had Hunter Biden as a board member.
Parnas and Fruman began in early 2019 arranging interviews for Giuliani and former Ukrainian prosecutors as part of the Biden investigation. They helped set up an interview with Igor Shokin, the prosecutor who claims that he was fired under pressure from Biden. They also arranged an interview for Giuliani with Yuri Letsenko, who succeeded Shokin.
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