January 15, 2020: Trump Assembles Sleaze Bag Crew to "Fight" Corruption in Ukraine

 

1/15/20: If you thought the Ukraine Affair couldn’t get worse, you were wrong. It just got worse.

 

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Trump assembles the worst corruption-fighting crew in the history of fighting corruption.

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But first, let’s reset some of the characters you need to know about, or keep in mind, if you are joining the story. 

We have one former U.S. ambassador, one personal lawyer to President Trump, and one eccentric Republican businessman. There are four felons, a Ukrainian oligarch fighting extradition in a case involving more possible felonies, and two individuals under indictment. Throw in two regular contributors to Fox News, a Ukrainian politician suspected of mishandling government money, and one U.S. president about to get his fat ass impeached.

 

 

CAST OF CHARACTERS 

Marie Yovanovitch: former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, target of Trump allies who felt she was blocking their back channel efforts to get dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden (and also maybe make some serious cash in Ukraine). Yovanovitch is the only person listed here who seems to have no criminal inclinations.

 

Rudy Giuliani: Trump’s personal lawyer; a man with no governmental or diplomatic position.

 

Lev Parnas: businessman working behind the scenes for Giuliani; currently in jail after bail was denied; indicted for laundering foreign money and passing it to Trump campaign groups and the Trump inaugural committee.

 

Igor Fruman: associate of Parnas and Giuliani; under indictment for the same reasons as Parnas. (See: 10/17/19.)

 

Robert Hyde: Republican businessman and 2020 candidate for Congress. His chances for election are not going to be enhanced by this story.

 

President Donald J. Trump: claims his only interest in getting Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden was his desire to ferret out corruption in Ukraine. That man really hates corruption!

 

Dmytro Firtash: Ukrainian oligarch, currently under indictment for bribery; has been fighting extradition to the United States for years.

 

Yuriy Lutsenko: former interior minister in Ukraine; removed from office in 2012 after being found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of power. Also convicted in a second case involving illegal surveillance.

 

Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova: lawyers who were working with Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman, and others. Frequent “unbiased” guests on Fox News; a married couple.

 

Imaad Zuberi: pled guilty to multiple felonies last week, including funneling foreign money to Team Trump 2016. (See: 1/7/20.)

 

George Nader: pled guilty to multiple felonies on Monday, including sex-trafficking of a minor. Also alleged to have passed illegal foreign campaign donations to Team Trump 2016. (See: 1/14/20.)

 

Paul Manafort and Rick Gates: helped run the Trump 2016 campaign. Both have pled guilty to or been found guilty of, multiple felonies. Almost all those felonies involved corrupt activities in Ukraine.

 

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“You are bringing into question all my allegations. Including about B.” 

TO SAY THE LEAST, if your true intent was to fight corruption this is not the platoon you’d want to lead into battle. 

Now a trove of fresh text messages and documents provided to Congress by the lawyer for Mr. Parnas, gives fresh lie to the president’s claim that it was always corruption that was on his mind in dealing with Ukraine. We learn yet again that Parnas, Giuliani, and assorted Ukrainians of less than sterling repute, were working behind the scenes to get rid of Ambassador Yovanovitch. 

As early as March 22, 2019, we know what it was Rudy and his feloniously-inclined friends wanted. Mr. Lutsenko promised on that date that if Yovanovitch could be disposed of he would try to trash “B.” In a text to Parnas he explained the necessity for her removal. “It’s just that if you don’t make a decision about Madam – you are bringing into question all my allegations. Including about B.”

Ambassador Yovanovitch.

 

Based on other documents released by Mr. Parnas’ lawyer, it’s clear that “B” is shorthand for either “Biden” or “Burisma,” which in this case are essentially synonymous, Burisma being the company Hunter Biden worked for – and by some freakish coincidence, the only company in the whole wide world that President Trump wanted investigated for corruption. 

In other words, Mr. Lutsenko was promising to help trash Hunter and his company, or Joe Biden, a candidate for president in the next election. 

Even worse, the text messages between Parnas and Lutsenko and Parnas and Hyde (see below) soon take on a sinister complexion. At one point, Lutsenko complains, “And here you can’t even get rid of one [female] fool.” 

He even adds an emoji, a frowning face. 

Parnas replies in a pair of texts: “She’s not a simple fool trust me.” Then: “But she’s not getting away.” 

More ominously, on March 23, Parnas shares messages with Robert F. Hyde, a new actor in a sorry saga. Hyde happens to be a GOP candidate for Congress. He has donated thousands of dollars to President Trump’s campaigns, and could sometimes be found schmoosing at Mar-a-Lago with the shadiest denizens of Trumpistan. For his part, Parnas keeps sending Hyde information meant to damage Yovanovitch’s reputation. 

Hyde responds, “Fuck that bitch.” 

Later, he adds, “Can’t believe Trumo [sic] hasn’t fired this bitch. I’ll get right in [sic] that.” 

 

Mr. Hyde with Donald Trump Jr.

“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price.” 

Then it gets weird. Hyde appears to be keeping Yovanovitch under surveillance. Later that day, Hyde texts Parnas, “She under heavy protection outside Kiev.” 

“I know crazy shit,” Parnas replies. 

“My guy thinks maybe FSB..?” Hyde texts back. That is, he seems to believe that Russian security agents are protecting the U.S. ambassador, which shows you what a conspiracy-theory nut he is. 

Or did he believe Yovanovitch was a Russian agent? 

Nuttier yet.

 

On March 25, Hyde and Parnas text at some length. Hyde knows a great deal about the ambassador’s whereabouts. “They are moving her tomorrow,” he says in his first text. 

Then this: “The guys over they [there] asked me what I would like to do and what is in it for them.” 

“Wake up Yankees man,” Hyde adds. “She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off. She’s next to the embassy. Not in the embassy. Private security. Been there since Thursday.” 

Parnas replies simply, “Interesting.” 

“They know she’s a political puppet,” Hyde says. “They will let me know when she’s on the move.” 

Parnas: “Perfect.” 

Hyde: “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price.” And again: “Guess you can do anything in the Ukraine with money…what I was told.” 

Parnas: “Lol.” 

(I think he should have added an emoji.)

Hyde with Don Sr.

 

The two men text again on March 26. Hyde still has eyes in Ukraine; and those eyes are on the ambassador: “Update she will not be moved special security unit upgraded fore on the compound people are already aware of the situation my contacts are asking what is the next step because they cannot keep going to check people will start to ask questions.” 

Then he adds, “If you want her out they need to make contact with security forces. From Ukrainians.” 

As both CNN and Vox have noted, on March 27, Hyde again provided Parnas with a heads up. “Nothing has changed she is still not moving they check today again. It’s confirmed we have a person inside.”

 

On March 29, Hyde tells Parnas the ambassador has had “visitors.” He wonders, “Hey brother do we stand down [emphasis added]??? Or you still need intel be safe” Hyde then asks, “Hey broski tell me what we are doing what’s the next step?” 

Then, as far as we know, Parnas and Hyde don’t communicate again for two months. On May 20, Trump decides to remove Ambassador Yovanovitch from her post.

Just for fun, another felon in the mix, Roger Stone, left.

Having dinner with Hyde.

 

* 

AS MIGHT BE EXPECTED, CNN and other news organizations reached out to Hyde last night and today, to ask if he was threatening harm to another American citizen in these texts. 

“No effing way,” he responded. “What kind of Bull Schiff question is that?” 

According to CNN, a check of Hyde’s website shows him posing for photos with Parnas, President Trump, and others. 

The Hartford Courant further explains: 

“Needless to say, the notion that American citizens and others were monitoring Ambassador Yovanovitch’s movements for unknown purposes is disturbing,” Lawrence Robbins, a lawyer for the ex-ambassador, said in a statement released to NBC News Thursday evening. “We trust that the appropriate authorities will conduct an investigation to determine what happened.”

 

Hyde did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As the story spread across social media, he posted a tweet that said, “Thank you for your kind words and support,” and included a link to his campaign fundraising page.

 

“Please click the link to make a contribution to our campaign so we can help get the house from [Rep.] Adam Bull Schiff and find the 12 billion dollars that disappeared in Ukraine under Maria Yovanovitch,” Hyde wrote.

 

Mother Jones, a left-wing news organization, also followed up on the story. Hyde’s social media pages,   

…feature a parade of photos of him posing with Trump and other notable Republicans, including Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Rep. Jim Jordan, now-convicted felon Roger Stone, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A financial disclosure form he filed as a congressional candidate notes that he did public relations work for a mysterious Trump donor from China (whom he once introduced Trump to at Mar-a-Lago). In November, he texted a reporter for CT Insider pictures of himself with Rudy Giuliani and two Giuliani associates who have been indicted, Lev Parnas, and Igor Fruman. 

 

Again, you don’t have to be a sleuth to deduce that these are not the people you would pick to fight corruption if you were President of the United States and you really wanted to fight corruption. 

Left to right: Parnas, Fruman, unknown man in glasses, Giuliani and Hyde.

 

Firtash fights extradition – spends a few million. 

In fact, Parnas, Fruman and Giuliani were happy to work with Mr. Firtash, in an effort to end efforts to extradite him to the U.S. And they had help. We know that Toensing and diGenova were doing legal work for Firtash, and billed him more than $1 million. (At the same time, they were appearing regularly on Fox News to lambast the whole House impeachment inquiry. DiGenova likened the original whistleblowers to “suicide bombers.” He insisted that Democrats were committing “regicide.” 

An odd choice of words, surely, to describe an investigation into the conduct of a President of the United States. 

We also know that Toensing and diGenova were paying handsomely for the services of an interpreter: Lev Parnas!! When that story leaked, Rudy denied knowing Firtash and Firtash said he wouldn’t know Rudy from an eggplant wearing glasses. President Trump said he didn’t know Parnas of Fruman either, even though pictures soon surfaced, showing the men smiling together.

 

Once these details leaked, legal experts agreed Firtash’s chances of having extradition ever waved were probably dead. 

As for Firtash, here is how the Justice Department described the case against him, when the indictment was unsealed in April 2014: 

A federal indictment returned under seal in June 2013 and unsealed today charges six foreign nationals, including a Ukrainian businessman [that is: Firtash] and a government official in India, with participating in an alleged international racketeering conspiracy [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] involving bribes of state and central government officials in India to allow the mining of titanium minerals. Five of the six defendants are also charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), among other offenses.

 

…Beginning in 2006, the defendants allegedly conspired to pay at least $18.5 million in bribes…The mining project was expected to generate more than $500 million annually from the sale of titanium products, including sales to unnamed “Company A,” headquartered in Chicago.

One defendant, Dmitry Firtash, aka “Dmytro Firtash” and “DF,” 48, a Ukrainian national, was arrested March 12, 2014, in Vienna, Austria. Firtash was released from custody on March 21, 2014, after posting 125 million euros (approximately $174 million) bail, and he pledged to remain in Austria until the end of extradition proceedings.

Five other defendants remain at large: Andras Knopp, 75, a Hungarian businessman; Suren Gevorgyan, 40, of Ukraine; Gajendra Lal, 50, an Indian national and permanent resident of the United States who formerly resided in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Periyasamy Sunderalingam, aka “Sunder,” 60, of Sri Lanka; and K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, aka “KVP” and “Dr. KVP,” 65, a Member of Parliament in India who was an official of the state government of Andhra Pradesh [the state where the mining was to begin] and a close advisor to the now-deceased chief minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

 

Clearly, if you’re hoping to stay out of jail, it helps to have millions to spend on your defense. Firtash has now stalled out the courts for nearly seven years.

 

A federal grand jury in Chicago brought in an indictment under seal in June 2013. All six defendants were charged with one count each of racketeering conspiracy, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and two counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Firtash and four others got an additional charge of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

The Justice Department also noted, “As alleged in the indictment, the defendants used U.S. financial institutions to engage in the international transmission of millions of dollars for the purpose of bribing Indian public officials to obtain approval of the necessary licenses for the [mining] project.” 

They allegedly financed the project and transferred and concealed bribe payments through a company controlled by Firtash, and “used threats and intimidation to advance the interests of the enterprise’s illegal activities.” 

So, let’s state the obvious for any Trump fans who might be reading this most excellent blog. If President Trump cared about fighting corruption in Ukraine, the team he assembled would seem akin to asking Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Jeffrey Epstein to shield young women from sexual abuse.

BLOGGER’s NOTE (4/19/22): While updating my blog, I decided to check how Hyde did in his run for office. He didn’t win a seat in Congress in 2020; but the man does not give up. He’s entered in the GOP primary, in August 2022, and hopes to gain a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

A little more checking, and I discover that Hyde was in the “war room,” in Washington D.C., on January 6, 2021, when Trump loyalists were plotting to overturn the results of the election – and destroy democracy once and for all.