Two Ukrainian men are being tied to nefarious and illegal activity with the president and his attorney Rudi Giuliani. Ukrainians Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman have been indicted by the US attorney in Manhattan on four counts, including conspiracy, falsification of records and lying to the Federal Election Commission about a $325,000 donation to a super PAC to support Trump. The Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) story insinuates that the two men helped Giuliani investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, were part of the president’s inner circle, and made illegal donations. It’s another “reason to impeach” headline, but the truth is buried deep in the story and it takes a discerning eye to spot it.
WSJ establishes that these Ukrainians attended functions at the White House, shows pictures of them with Trump as well as with his son, Donald Trump, Jr., while reporting that the president said he didn’t know the men. Of course, there are countless people who get their pictures taken with presidents, that the president would never recall their names or their faces. But a picture connotates familiarity. It is not until late in the story that it is revealed that those campaign donations, which allegedly have a circuitous route with “Russian” connections, were not made during the 2016 cycle, but rather for the current cycle to support the president and other Republicans running for office. But wait, there is more.
The $325,000 was thought to be suspicious when it came in to the America First Action super PAC. This key information is buried late in the story after all the narrative that raises suspicions is laid out. WSJ reports, “In May 2018, the men separately gave $325,000 to the primary pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action, through the LLC Global Energy Producers, according to the indictment and FEC records. The way they structured that donation was meant “to evade the reporting requirements” in federal law, prosecutors alleged. The indictment also alleges that Mr. Fruman intentionally misspelled his name to further evade FEC scrutiny.”
Here’s the kicker as reported by WSJ, “A spokeswoman for America First Action said the super PAC had placed the contribution in a segregated bank account after a complaint was filed in July 2018 with the FEC. The donation “has not been used for any purpose, and the funds will remain in this segregated account until these matters are resolved,” the spokeswoman said. “We take our legal obligations seriously and scrupulously comply with the law and any suggestion otherwise is false.”” This appears to be another narrative to cast sinister suspicions on Giuliani and the president regarding Ukraine and Russia. The attempts to confuse and deceive Americans continue. Christ said in Luke 12:2, “For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.” May it be so in all of this. Don’t be deceived by the headlines.
