Two main and close Trump lackeys: “Sleepy and Oopsie”
Rudy Gee
tactics along with Energy Sec. Rick “Oops Perry in the loop now and along with a
bunch of rich Trump crony donors as well as Russian energy cronies breaking and
updated story here from The AP and from Vox.com (via MSN) here:
KIEV, Ukraine — As Rudy Giuliani was pushing
Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate Trump's main political rivals
(namely Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden), a group of individuals with ties
to Trump and Giuliani, his personal lawyer, were also active in that former
Soviet republic – their aims: profit, not politics.
Details:
That circle
of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump
while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine's massive state-run
gas company, known as Naftogaz.
Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by
Trump rich donor allies as explained by several people familiar with their deal.
However, their
plan hit a snag after former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who lost
his reelection Volodymyr Zelenskey,
was their main contact. But their effort to install a friendlier management
team at the helm of the gas company would soon be taken up with Ukraine's new
president by current Energy Secretary Rick Perry (R-TX) and a slate of
candidates tied to Perry as his past political donors.
It's unclear
if Perry's attempts to replace board members at Naftogaz were coordinated with
the Giuliani allies pushing for a similar outcome, and no one has alleged that
there is criminal activity in any of these efforts. And it's unclear what role,
if any, Giuliani had in helping his clients push to get gas sales agreements
with the state-owned company.
But the
affair shows how those with ties to Trump and his administration were pursuing
business deals in Ukraine that went far beyond advancing the president's
personal political interests.
It also
raises questions about whether Trump allies were mixing business and politics
just as Republicans were calling for a probe of Biden and his son Hunter,
who served five years on the board of another Ukrainian energy company,
Burisma.
The Trump
and Giuliani allies driving the attempt to change the senior management at
Naftogaz, however, appear to have had inside knowledge of the U.S. government's
plans in Ukraine. For example, they told people that Trump would replace the
U.S. ambassador there months before she was actually recalled to Washington,
according to three of the individuals interviewed by the AP. One of the
individuals said he was so concerned by the whole affair that he reported it to
a U.S. Embassy official in Ukraine months ago.
At the
center of the Naftogaz plan, according to three individuals familiar with the
details: two Soviet-born Florida real estate entrepreneurs, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, and an oil
magnate from Boca Raton, Florida, named Harry
Sargeant III.
Parnas and
Fruman have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to
Republicans, including $325,000 to a Trump-allied political action committee in
2018. This helped the relatively unknown entrepreneurs gain access to top
levels of the Republican Party — including meetings with Trump at the White
House and Mar-a-Lago.
Those two have also faced lawsuits from disgruntled
investors over unpaid debts. During the same period they were pursuing the
Naftogaz deal, the two were coordinating with Giuliani to set up meetings with
Ukrainian government officials and push for an investigation of the Bidens.
Sargeant,
his wife and corporate entities tied to the family have donated at least $1.2
million to Republican campaigns and PACs over the last 20 years, including
$100,000 in June to the Trump Victory Fund, according to federal and state
campaign finance records.
On March 24,
Giuliani and Parnas gathered at the Trump International Hotel in Washington
with Healy Baumgardner, a former Trump campaign adviser who once served as
deputy communications director for Giuliani's presidential campaign and as a
communications official during the George W. Bush administration.
This time, according to Giuliani, the
deals that were discussed involved Uzbekistan, not Ukraine, saying: “I
have not pursued a deal in the Ukraine. I don't know about a deal in the
Ukraine. I would not do a deal in the Ukraine now, obviously. There is
absolutely no proof that I did it, because I didn't do it.”
During this
meeting, Parnas again repeated that U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in Kiev,
would soon be replaced, according to a person with direct knowledge of the
gathering. She was removed two months later.
Now, as part
of their impeachment inquiry, House Democrats have subpoenaed Giuliani for
documents and communications related to dozens of people, including Favorov,
Parnas, Fruman, and Baumgardner's 45 Energy Group.
Baumgardner
later denied that she had any business dealings in Ukraine but refused to say
whether the replacement of Yovanovitch was discussed. Sargeant did not respond to a voice message left
at a number listed for him at an address in Boca Raton.
John Dowd, former Trump attorney, now
represents Parnas and Fruman, said it was Naftogaz executives who approached
his clients about making a deal.
Dowd says the group then approached
Rick Perry to get the Energy Department on board, said: “The
people from the company solicited my clients because Igor is in the gas
business, and they asked them, and they flew to Washington and they solicited.
They sat down and talked about it. And then it was presented to Perry to see if
they could get it together. It wasn't a shakedown; it was an attempt to do
legitimate business that didn't work out.”
My 2
cents:
This story is very long
with more at the two links cited above.
B/L: This story is deep and very
detailed, and in the end they all should prosecuted and get some serious jail time.
Thanks for stopping by.
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