Friday, October 11, 2019

Rudy’s Buddies

This impeachment inquiry is providing some great comic relief.

Rudy Giuliani lunched with two associates at the Trump International Hotel in Washington on Wednesday just hours before the duo was arrested at a Washington-area airport, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are business associates of Giuliani who had been working with the former New York mayor on his efforts to dig up dirt in Ukraine on former Vice President Joe Biden. A person who saw the trio eating at the Trump hotel spoke to the Journal for the story.

Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia on Wednesday and on Thursday were indicted for allegedly funneling foreign money into US elections. A law enforcement source told CNN they were booked on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany, to connect to another flight.

Giuliani declined to comment to CNN on the report.

Parnas and Fruman are two of four men who were indicted on Thursday. Andrey Kukushkin has been arrested and is expected to appear in court Thursday in the Northern District of California, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s office. The fourth man, David Correia, hasn’t been arrested. All four are US citizens, according to the indictment.

When asked, Trump denied knowing either Parnas and Fruman, but a little digging came up with some lovely photos of Mr. Fruman’s dinner at the White House back in May.

And the one-way tickets to Vienna?  Oh, they’re going to take in some opera at the Wiener Staatsoper. And bring back some strudel.