Ex-Giuliani pal Lev Parnas personally pitched Trump on weed legalization, trial reveals
Ex-Rudy Giuliani pal Lev Parnas was no serial fraudster, but instead a weed entrepreneur who once personally pitched former President Donald Trump on a proposal to legalize marijuana nationwide, his attorney argued Wednesday on the first day of the politically connected businessman’s trial.
Parnas, best known for helping Trump and Giuliani search for political dirt on President Biden in Ukraine in 2019, floated the pot plan during a meeting with Trump at his Washington, D.C. hotel in spring 2018, his attorney, Joseph Bondy, said in Manhattan Federal Court during opening arguments.
“He brought the president a memorandum on marijuana — legalizing marijuana as a Republican midterm point,” Bondy said, referring to that year’s congressional elections.
Parnas, 49, is on trial over charges that he conspired with three other men to make $1 million in illegal campaign donations using a Russian investor’s money. The plan, the feds say, was for the political donations to help obtain licenses for legal marijuana sales in certain states.
Parnas also faces charges for a separate scheme involving his alleged efforts to conceal the source of a $325,000 donations to a pro-Trump super PAC.
After being arrested, Parnas went on a media tour describing himself as a whistleblower being blocked from speaking out by the Trump administration. At trial, Parnas had a new identity: The altruistic businessman concerned about harsh marijuana laws.
Bondy cited Parnas’ determination to directly lobby Trump as evidence of his passion for decriminalization. He said Parnas was an entrepreneur who did not knowingly violate any laws.
“The courage you will see of a person going, talking to Donald Trump in a room full of older donors about legalizing cannabis,” Bondy said before adding, “It never occurred, of course.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aline Flodr called bull on the notion Parnas was a well-meaning marijuana activist.
Parnas and three associates, Flodr said, solicited $1 million from Andrey Muraviev, a wealthy Russian investor, that they then funneled to U.S. politicians based in states that allow legal marijuana sales. Foreigners are barred from making campaign contributions in the U.S.
Flodr said Parnas and the others gave themselves away by obscuring the source of Muraviev’s cash, making the donations themselves or using corporate entities.
“These men shoveled thousands and thousands of dollars of foreign money to U.S. politicians, laughing about how they were breaking the law along the way,” Flodr told the jury. “That is what secret foreign money infiltrating U.S. elections looks like.”
The prosecution called as its first witness Wesley Duncan, a 2018 Republican candidate for Nevada attorney general who received some of Muraviev’s money, but returned it after his staff flagged it as of uncertain origin.
“As soon as we had doubt about who sent the money, I contacted the treasurer to the campaign and had them write a check,” Duncan said.
The second set of charges against Parnas — relating to the pro-Trump super PAC donation — went largely unmentioned by prosecutors during their opening arguments Wednesday.
Those charges overlap with the former president’s first impeachment over his attempt to pressure Ukraine’s government into helping him produce compromising information about Biden.
According to prosecutors and impeachment testimony, Parnas issued the donations to the super PAC and at least one Republican member of Congress at a time when he was working with Giuliani and Trump on smearing ex-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who had refused to participate in the effort to tar Biden.
Parnas launched the Ukraine caper with fellow Giuliani associate Igor Fruman, who pleaded guilty last month on charges related to the weed business scheme to avoid trial on the other counts.
Another defendant involved in the weed plot, David Correia, is serving one year in prison for his role in the scheme.
A fourth associate, Andrey Kukushkin, has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the weed plot and is on trial alongside Parnas.
Kukushkin allegedly served as a liaison for Muraviev, helping set up the illicit campaign contributions.
But Gerald Lefcourt, Kukushkin’s attorney, argued that Parnas and Fruman duped his client and actually only used a fraction of the money Muraviev gave them for political donations. The rest of the dough, Lefcourt said, Parnas and Fruman spent on themselves.
“This case is more than about campaign contributions,” Lefcourt said. “It’s about how $1 million was stolen.”
