How A Complicated Web Connects 2 Soviet-Born Businessmen With The Impeachment Inquiry
The story of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman unfolds like a globe-trotting mystery over more than a year.
When the two associates of President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, were arrested at an airport this month for campaign finance violations, it wasn't immediately clear how — or even if — those activities were related to the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
But even before their arrest by the FBI, the two Soviet-born men were among the people whom Congress wanted to interview.
That's because over the past couple of years, the businessmen crossed paths repeatedly with people and events at the center of the impeachment inquiry, both in the U.S. and in Ukraine.
Impeachment is a political process, not a criminal one. But the case of Parnas and Fruman blurs that line. How two unknown businessmen became embroiled with Giuliani and in the removal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine illustrates the complicated and shadowy web of connections and deal-making at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
Parnas and Fruman are scheduled to be arraigned in a New York courtroom Wednesday on conspiracy and other charges related to campaign finance violations.
