The invisible man: Text messages reveal former golfer’s role in Ukraine scandal

When Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman traveled to Ukraine last winter to help Rudy Giuliani dig up dirt on President Donald Trump’s political opponents, they were accompanied by a 44 year-old American named David Correia.

A former pro golfer and restaurateur, Correia had gotten to know Parnas and Fruman in South Florida, where he’d gone into business with Parnas years earlier.

While Parnas and Fruman, who had high-level contacts in Ukraine, worked to gather documents that they believed showed evidence of corruption by Joe Biden and his son Hunter, Correia was there to make the effort pay off in lucrative business deals, according to people who talked to him at the time, as well as copies of text messages obtained by CNN.

Before the trip, Correia texted an American associate that he wanted to “be fully prepared to close specific deals in Ukraine while we are there,” according to the message viewed by CNN. Though he had no experience in the gas or energy business prior to working with Parnas, Correia was bent on securing a deal to sell US liquified natural gas to Ukraine through a pipeline in Poland.

When the three men were indicted in October for illegally funneling foreign money into Republican political circles, attention quickly focused on Parnas and Fruman, who have become key characters in the ongoing impeachment saga of President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile Correia’s role has gotten little scrutiny. In part, that’s due to the lack of detail in the indictment beyond Correia’s alleged involvement in an effort to lobby for a marijuana business that, according to the indictment, was secretly backed by a Russian businessman. Compared to the four counts Parnas and Fruman face, Correia was charged with just one. All three men have pleaded not guilty.

But sources and documents obtained by CNN shed new light on the crucial role Correia played in furthering the business interests of Parnas and Fruman. The three men weren’t just there to help the President by digging up dirt on his political opponents. They were there to make money.

Correia was often the trio’s point person in dealing with business contacts in Ukraine, and his work included drafting contracts and memorandums of understanding that the group could present to potential business partners, according to four sources who deal with them.

Sources who dealt with the men said that Correia’s smooth, conscientious manner was a helpful contrast to Parnas and Fruman, who sometimes struck people as hustlers.

“Lev was flamboyant; he only got out of bed at 2 p.m. in the afternoon,” says one person who talked business regularly with the trio on the East Coast. “Correia was the worker, the one really trying to make a business out of all their connections.”

“Correia came across as likeable and professional,” said another person who dealt with the group. “Without him, Parnas and Fruman really had no credibility,”

Several days after Fruman and Parnas were nabbed at Dulles International Airport, Correia landed on October 16 at JFK International Airport in New York and turned himself in. Following a brief court appearance that same day, where he was asked to post $250,000 bail, Correia has stayed out of the limelight.

Correia’s lawyer declined to comment for this story.

Connecting with Giuliani

Correia, Parnas and Fruman have been operating in a variety of business interests together in Florida for years. In 2012, Correia was listed as the secretary for Parnas Holdings.

Together, he and Parnas created Fraud Guarantee, a company intended to offer an insurance-like product to protect investors against scams, according to the New York Times.

Correia was also listed as the registered agent of the now defunct corporation Global Energy Partners, which prosecutors allege Parnas and Fruman used as a shell corporation to illegally funnel political donations to Republicans, including Trump’s flagship super PAC, America First Action. Those who received donations have either returned or donated the money to charity. America First Action says it never spent the money.

Like Parnas, Correia always seemed to be scrambling to raise money for his business ventures. He’d sometimes ask richer friends for a loan, according to two people who received such requests.

By the time Trump was elected, Parnas, Fruman and Correia had tapped into a network of wealthy Floridians, many of whom were Republican donors. They eventually found their way to Rudy Giuliani, who they wanted to recruit to join their business, Fraud Guarantee.

Given Giuliani’s expertise in the security business, he wanted to be paid at least $500,000 to be affiliated with Fraud Guarantee, according to Reuters and sources who spoke to CNN.

Correia took the lead in trying to raise the money, sending pitches to several wealthy Republican donors, and bragging about Giuliani’s potential role in the company. With the former New York City mayor involved, the company would be “a home run,” two sources recalled Correia saying.

Several people who received Correia’s pitch have now received subpoenas from the Southern District of New York.

Other business efforts

Giuliani was useful in other ways and Correia began working at least one of the former mayor’s TV contacts for potential business.

Correia used Middle East expert and frequent Fox News contributor Walid Phares to help set up a meeting in the summer of 2018 with Okba Haftar, the son of renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, according to Phares. The meeting was a general discussion about doing business in Libya, Phares told CNN.

Phares also said that Correia proposed hiring him on a consulting contract if he agreed to work as an expert for their company for a number of months. “I haven’t received any draft, a contract was never offered,” Phares told CNN. “There was no business.”

“It’s starting”

In 2019, Giuliani started hosting a series of regular meetings in a private room at the BLT restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Washington that concerned Ukraine, as CNN has previously reported.

Correia was a regular attendee, according to an eyewitness who sat in with them and heard about other meetings.

Correia also attended a number of Trump-related events over the past few years and appears in at least two pictures with Trump. One photo, posted on his Facebook page in January 2018 showed Correia with Trump at an October 2016 fundraiser in the Florida home of businessman Robert Pereira in Hillsboro Beach, Florida.

Another photo shows Correia and Fruman smiling along Trump at a June 2018 event at the Trump International Hotel in Washington for Trump’s super PAC, America First Action.

Giuliani’s Ukraine strategy sessions at the Trump hotel also included John Solomon, then an editor at The Hill newspaper.

On April 1, Correia texted a friend “it’s starting.” He enclosed a link to an April column by Solomon headlined “Joe Biden’s 2020 Ukrainian Nightmare,” referencing an assertion by Solomon that a Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, was reopening a probe into alleged corruption by Biden. Lutsenko stated a month later this was false information. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

Getting to Firtash

Throughout, Correia’s biggest objective seems to have been to find a way to sell US liquified natural gas into Ukraine and other parts of Europe. Doing that required having a strong relationship with Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company. Texts from Correia show that through 2018 and 2019 he set up several meetings to forge a bond with the company.

Last spring, Parnas and Fruman traveled to Israel to meet Ihor Kolomoisky, a close supporter of the new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky. The meeting ended in disaster when Kolomoisky threw the two men out after they suggested he should pay them to bring Trump administration officials to Zelensky’s inauguration.

In a May 18 text he sent to a friend, Correia noted the meeting was a “short term headache,” one that “hopefully” wouldn’t hurt their “other business endeavors.”

By the summer of 2019, the trio found a new potential revenue stream in Dmitri Firtash, an exiled Ukrainian oligarch with strong ties to Putin, according to two sources who talked with the men frequently. Firtash had made billions of dollars over decades as a key middleman selling Russian gas into Ukraine.

In June 2019, according to the two sources, Parnas met Firtash, who by then was in need of political clout in the US. He had been living in Vienna for the past several years and was wanted for extradition by prosecutors in the US, where he faces bribery charges.

Of all the business deals that the Giuliani association brought to Parnas, Fruman, and Correia, Firtash was the clear jackpot because there were so many ways they could potentially help him — both in Ukraine and in the US.

Parnas connected Firtash to a pair of US lawyers with ties to the Trump administration: Giuliani’s close friends, Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing. Parnas was paid $200,000 for a four-month contract to be an interpreter for Firtash, according to Parnas’ lawyer Joseph A. Bondy, who said in court that Parnas split the money with Correia.

As Correia explained it to two sources who spoke with CNN, an initial payment, which was enough to fund private jet travel, bodyguards and SUVs, was a mix of a “thank you” for an introduction to DiGenova and Toensing, who then advocated for Firtash to Attorney General William Barr, and a payment for Parnas’ work as an interpreter. Ralph Oswald Isenegger, a lawyer for Firtash, said he had no comment on anything sources claimed Correia said.

When asked for a response as to whether Firtash met with Correia, Isenegger told CNN: “As we have stated time and time again, Mr. Firtash had no business dealings with any of these gentlemen.”

But according to the two sources who spoke frequently with the group, Correia spent more than a week with Firtash in Vienna over the summer. After returning to Florida, in mid-August, Correia was intent on finding someone who would sell liquefied natural gas to Firtash. He told two US businessmen he thought the Middle East had potential, specifically Qatar.

In early fall, according to the two businessmen, Correia told associates he was going to Dubai to close a deal with Firtash, where Isenegger has an office.

On October 7, Correia texted a friend that he was in Dubai. Asked about the recent revelations of the whistleblower, Correia wrote that he was slammed and stressed. “Cannot get off the telephone and it is midnight here and still not done,” Correia texted. “Everytime I try to call you another call comes in. Rough day for everyone.”

Three days later, Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles airport. On October 16, Correia flew back to the US to turn himself in.

Subpoena indicates federal investigators interested in Giuliani’s business

Federal prosecutors investigating associates of Rudy Giuliani have launched a broad investigation that could include criminal charges ranging from conspiracy, obstruction of justice, campaign finance violations and money laundering, according to a subpoena sent to at least one witness and seen by CNN.

The grand jury subpoena describes the range of charges that are being considered and appears to signal that prosecutors are also looking at the associates’ relationship with the President’s personal lawyer and specifically Giuliani’s business. The Wall Street Journal first reported the subpoena.

The broad range of charges encompassed in the subpoena include conspiracy to defraud the US, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, obstruction of justice, making false statements to federal officials, wire fraud, money laundering and violations of federal election laws that prohibit the use of straw donors and foreign money in US elections.

Giuliani has not been accused of any wrongdoing. He has previously told CNN he has not heard from prosecutors. His attorney, Robert Costello, could not immediately be reached for comment.

CNN reported last week that prosecutors with the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI have interviewed several witnesses and subpoenaed fundraisers and donors with ties to President Donald Trump as part of the investigation.

Last month Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Giuliani’s associates, were indicted on campaign finance charges for allegedly using a shell company, Global Energy Producers, to disguise that they were behind a campaign donation made to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC. Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The subpoena, which asks for documents and communications with or relating to Parnas and Fruman, also seeks any records relating to Giuliani, his security firm Giuliani Partners and any related people or entities. Prosecutors are asking specifically for any documents relating to any actual or potential payments made to Giuliani, his firm or others. In addition, prosecutors are seeking documents relating to political contributions to America First Action, the super PAC. America First said it is voluntarily cooperating with prosecutors and has not been subpoenaed.

Giuliani has publicly acknowledged he was paid $500,000 by Parnas’ company, Fraud Guarantee, for legal work, but he has declined to provide details about the precise services for which he was being paid.

An attorney for a wealthy Republican donor named Charles Gucciardo told CNN that Gucciardo actually paid Giuliani’s firm on behalf of Parnas’ company. The lawyer, Randy Zelin, characterized Gucciardo’s payment as an investment in Parnas’ company. Zelin said Gucciardo was motivated by business, not politics. Gucciardo has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Zeldin declined to comment on whether he was contacted by prosecutors.

Prosecutors have subpoenaed other individuals who Parnas pitched to invest in Fraud Guarantee, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The former New York mayor has faced a wave of questions about his work for Trump following the release of a whistleblower complaint that alleges Trump abused his official powers “to solicit interference” from Ukraine in the 2020 election and that the White House took steps to cover it up. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Since the release of the complaint, Giuliani has emerged as a central figure in the controversy through the testimony of many witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry. Giuliani complicated official US policy in Ukraine by going through irregular channels to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told lawmakers last week that there was a quid pro quo for Ukraine to announce investigations into Trump’s political opponents, which came from Giuliani at the “express direction of the President.” Trump repeatedly told diplomats to talk to GIuliani regarding Ukraine.

Giuliani has previously told CNN he has “no knowledge of any of that crap” in the whistleblower complaint and distanced himself from Sondland.

CORRECTION: The headline on this story has been updated to reflect the subpoena seen by CNN was sent to a witness in the probe.

CNN Erica Orden contributed to this report.

Giuliani associate willing to tell Congress Nunes met with ex-Ukrainian official to get dirt on Biden

A lawyer for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani tells CNN that his client is willing to tell Congress about meetings the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee had in Vienna last year with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

The attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, represents Lev Parnas, the recently indicted Soviet-born American who worked with Giuliani to push claims of Democratic corruption in Ukraine. Bondy said that Parnas was told directly by the former Ukrainian official that he met last year in Vienna with Rep. Devin Nunes.

“Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December,” said Bondy.

Shokin was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including then-vice president Biden, over concerns that Shokin was not pursuing corruption cases.

Nunes is one of President Donald Trump’s key allies in Congress and has emerged as a staunch defender of the President during the impeachment inquiry, which he has frequently labeled as a “circus.” Nunes declined repeated requests for comment.

Bondy tells CNN that his client and Nunes began communicating around the time of the Vienna trip. Parnas says he worked to put Nunes in touch with Ukrainians who could help Nunes dig up dirt on Biden and Democrats in Ukraine, according to Bondy.

That information would likely be of great interest to House Democrats given its overlap with the current impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and could put Nunes in a difficult spot.

Bondy tells CNN his client is willing to comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents and testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry in a manner that would allow him to protect his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Bondy suggested in a tweet on Friday that he was already speaking to House Intel though the committee declined to comment.

Giuliani has told CNN previously about his conversations with Shokin and Parnas, saying that this was part of his legal work forF his client, President Trump. Parnas’ claims about Nunes’ alleged involvement offers a new wrinkle and for the first time suggests the efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens involved a member of Congress.

Parnas’ claims that Nunes met with Shokin, which has not been previously reported, add further context to a Daily Beast report that Parnas helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Nunes last year, citing another Parnas’ lawyer, Ed McMahon.

Those revelations came to a head on Thursday when Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell raised the Daily Beast story publicly during the impeachment hearing.

Parnas, who was indicted on federal campaign finance charges last month, worked with Shokin and Giuliani to push a pair of unfounded claims: that Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats, and that Biden was acting corruptly in Ukraine on behalf of his son Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.

According to Bondy, Parnas claims Nunes worked to push similar allegations of Democratic corruption.

“Nunes had told Shokin of the urgent need to launch investigations into Burisma, Joe and Hunter Biden, and any purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” Bondy told CNN.

There is no evidence that the Bidens acted inappropriately. Nor is there evidence to support the conspiracy theory that Ukraine worked with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 election.

Yet these claims have been a key part of the public defense of the President put forth by Nunes and other Republicans during the impeachment hearings this month.

Parnas is currently under house arrest in Florida and has pleaded not guilty to charges of federal campaign finance fraud.

Over the past two weeks, CNN approached Nunes on two occasions and reached out to his communications staff to get comment for this story.

In the Capitol on Nov. 14, as CNN began to ask a question about the trip to Vienna, Nunes interjected and said, “I don’t talk to you in this lifetime or the next lifetime.”

“At any time,” Nunes added. “On any question.”

Asked again on Thursday about his travel to Vienna and his interactions with Shokin and Parnas, Nunes gave a similar response.

“To be perfectly clear, I don’t acknowledge any questions from you in this lifetime or the next lifetime,” Nunes said while leaving the impeachment hearing. “I don’t acknowledge any question from you ever.”

CNN was unable to reach Shokin for comment.

A trip to Europe

Congressional travel records show that Nunes and three aides traveled to Europe from November 30 to December 3, 2018. The records do not specify that Nunes and his staff went to Vienna or Austria, and Nunes was not required to disclose the exact details of the trip.

Nunes’ entourage included retired colonel Derek Harvey, who had previously worked for Trump on the National Security Council, and now works for Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee. Harvey declined to comment.

Bondy told CNN that Nunes planned the trip to Vienna after Republicans lost control of the House in the mid-term elections on Nov. 6, 2018.

“Mr. Parnas learned through Nunes’ investigator, Derek Harvey, that the Congressman had sequenced this trip to occur after the mid-term elections yet before Congress’ return to session, so that Nunes would not have to disclose the trip details to his Democrat colleagues in Congress,” said Bondy.

At the time of the trip, Nunes was chairman of the Intelligence Committee. In January, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff took over as chairman of the powerful committee, which is now conducting the impeachment inquiry.

Nunes meeting with Parnas

Bondy says that according to his client, following a brief in-person meeting in late 2018, Parnas and Nunes had at least two more phone conversations, and that Nunes instructed Parnas to work with Harvey on the Ukraine matters.

Parnas says that shortly after the Vienna trip, he and Harvey met at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where they discussed claims about the Bidens as well as allegations of Ukrainian election interference, according to Bondy.

Following this, Bondy says that in a phone conversation Nunes told Parnas that he was conducting his own investigation into the Bidens and asked Parnas for help validating information he’d gathered from conversations with various current and former Ukrainian officials, including Shokin.

Parnas says that Nunes told him he’d been partly working off of information from the journalist John Solomon, who had written a number of articles on the Biden conspiracy theory for the Hill, according to Bondy.

CNN reached out to Harvey on multiple occasions for comment. Reached by phone on Friday morning, Harvey refused to comment and directed CNN to contact the communications director for Nunes. That person, Jack Langer, did not respond to numerous requests for comment from CNN. A spokesman for Schiff declined to comment for this story.

The BLT team

Bondy tells CNN that Parnas is also willing to tell Congress about a series of regular meetings he says he took part in at the Trump International Hotel in Washington that concerned Ukraine. According to Bondy, Parnas became part of what he described as a “team” which met several times a week in a private room at the BLT restaurant on the second floor of the Trump Hotel.In addition to giving the group access to key people in Ukraine who could help their cause, Parnas translated their conversations, Bondy said.

The group, according to Bondy, included Giuliani, Parnas, the journalist Solomon, and the married attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing. Parnas said that Harvey would occasionally be present as well, and that it was Parnas’ understanding that Harvey was Nunes’ proxy, Bondy said.

Solomon confirmed the meetings to CNN but said that calling the group a team was a bit of a mischaracterization. Solomon said that connectivity happened more organically, and that his role was only as a journalist reporting a story.

Solomon also said that Di Genova and Toensing, his lawyers, introduced him to Parnas as a facilitator and interpreter in early March. ”Parnas was very helpful to me in getting Ukraine officials on the record,” Solomon told CNN. “I only gradually realized Lev was working for other people, including Rudy Giuliani.”

Solomon insists he was only reporting on a story as it unfolded, “Any suggestion that I was involved in any campaign to pressure Ukraine or the United States government to take any actions is categorically false,” Solomon said.

Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment. DiGenova and Toensing declined to comment through a spokesperson.

Solomon no longer works at the Hill. After Solomon’s reporting came under intense scrutiny during the impeachment inquiry, the paper announced it is reviewing his work.

Parnas wants to talk

In the weeks since his arrest, Parnas has become disenchanted with Trump and Giuliani, according to Bondy as well as other sources who spoke to CNN. Parnas, these sources say, was particularly upset when Trump denied knowing him the day after Parnas and his associate Igor Fruman were arrested in October.

Last week, CNN reported that Parnas had claimed to have had a private meeting with Trump in which the President tasked him with a “secret mission” to uncover dirt on Democrats in Ukraine.

“He believes he has put himself out there for the President and now he’s been completely hung out to dry,” a person close to Parnas told CNN. Last week, the White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment to a series of questions regarding the meeting and Trump’s relationship with Parnas.

On Thursday, Bondy promoted the hashtag #LetLevSpeak on Twitter in response to a number of questions about whether Parnas would testify in front of Congress.

Bondy tweeted directly at Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy Thursday night after McCarthy accused Schiff of blocking important witnesses from testifying, saying “I don’t agree with your premise, but please, if you mean what you say, call my client, Lev Parnas. #LetLevSpeak.”

CNN’s Michael Warren, Alex Rogers and Audrey Ash contributed to this report.

Prosecutors subpoena Trump fundraisers as part of Giuliani investigation

Federal prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed several individuals active in President Donald Trump’s fundraising machinery as part of their investigation into the associates of Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal attorney, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Prosecutors sent subpoenas in recent weeks to Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm run by Brian Ballard, a top Trump fundraiser, and FBI agents have knocked on the doors of others involved with Republican campaigns, the sources said.

One of the subpoenas asked for communications and documents relating to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — the two Giuliani associates arrested last month on campaign finance charges — along with a fundraiser at America First Action, a super PAC supporting Trump, and Giuliani himself.

Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty. Giuliani has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

FBI agents questioned some individuals about how they knew Parnas and Fruman, if they knew how the men gained a foothold into fundraising dinners, and how they connected with Giuliani, a person familiar with the matter said.

The round of subpoenas and interviews suggests prosecutors are digging more deeply into the financial relationships between the two Florida men, who appeared to rise out of nowhere to become fixtures at Trump fundraisers and fixers for Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine.

Ballard did not respond to requests for comment. An executive at the Ballard firm declined to comment.

One of the subpoenas was sent to Paul Okoloko, an executive with a Nigerian fertilizer company who lives in Florida, one source said. Parnas pitched Okoloko to invest in Fraud Guarantee, the same company that ultimately received a $500,000 investment from a plaintiffs lawyer that was paid to Giuliani. A spokesman for Okoloko did not have an immediate comment.

Another subpoena, according to the source, was sent to Meredith O’Rourke, a prominent Florida GOP fundraiser who worked with the Trump Victory Fund. O’Rourke did not respond to a request for comment.

Ballard Partners paid Parnas $45,000 in 2018. A person familiar with the transaction previously told CNN it was because Parnas had made client referrals. The person said no payments have been made in 2019.

Ballard represented the Republic of Turkey in 2017 and 2018, according to foreign lobbying filings made with the US Department of Justice.

Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for America First Action, told The New York Times, which first reported the subpoenas, that the group contacted the Southern District of New York last month “and offered to voluntarily cooperate.” She added that it had not been subpoenaed.

“America First Action strictly follows the law and, as this is an open matter, we have no further comment,” Sadler said.

A spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

Exclusive: After private White House meeting, Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was on a ‘secret mission’ for Trump, sources say

Among the many guests who had their pictures taken with President Donald Trump at the White House’s annual Hanukkah party last year were two Soviet-born businessmen from Florida, Lev  Parnas and Igor  Fruman.

In the picture, which Parnas posted on social media, he and Fruman are seen smiling alongside Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal lawyer.

At one point during the party that night, Parnas and Fruman slipped out of a large reception room packed with hundreds of Trump donors to have a private meeting with the President and Giuliani, according to two acquaintances in whom Parnas confided right after the meeting.

Word of the encounter in the White House last December, which has not been previously reported, is further indication that Trump knew Parnas and Fruman, despite Trump publicly stating that he did not on the day after the two men were arrested at Dulles International Airport last month.

Eventually, according to what Parnas told his confidants, the topic turned to Ukraine that night. According to those two confidants, Parnas said that “the big guy,” as he sometimes referred to the President in conversation, talked about tasking him and Fruman with what Parnas described as “a secret mission” to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

“James Bond mission”

In the days immediately following the meeting, Parnas insinuated to the two people he confided in that he clearly believed he’d been given a special assignment by the President; like some sort of “James Bond mission,” according to one of the people.

To Parnas, the chain of command was clear: Giuliani would issue the President’s directives while Parnas, who speaks fluent Russian, would be an on-the-ground investigator alongside Fruman, who has numerous business contacts in Ukraine.

“Parnas viewed the assignment as a great crusade,” says one of the people in whom Parnas confided. “He believed he was doing the right thing for Trump.”

The White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment to a series of questions regarding the meeting and Trump’s relationship with Parnas and Fruman.

Giuliani, through his lawyer, Robert Costello, denies that any private meeting took place that night at the White House, saying it was a mere handshake and photo opportunity. Costello also rejects Parnas’ claims of being put on a “James Bond” style mission, saying that Parnas is “no Sean Connery,” and that he suffers from “delusions of grandeur.”

Joseph A. Bondy, a lawyer for Parnas, told CNN, “Mr. Parnas at all times believed that he was acting only on behalf of the President, as directed by his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and never on behalf of any Ukrainian officials.”

A lawyer for Fruman declined to comment for this article.

In the past, Giuliani has been circumspect about how he became associated with Parnas and Fruman. In previous conversations with CNN, Giuliani has refused to identify his contact, saying simply that a “well-known investigator” connected him with Parnas.

Ken McCallion, a former federal prosecutor with numerous high-level clients in Ukraine, including former and current government officials, told CNN that he’s heard a similar story about the Hanukkah party encounter. Parnas told some of McCallion’s clients and contacts in Ukraine about the encounter. “Parnas told everyone in Ukraine about the White House meeting. He was adamant he was ‘their guy’ — that they chose him to be their ambassador in Ukraine,” McCallion said.

And in February this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Parnas and Fruman met with the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. During that meeting, they extended Poroshenko an invitation for a State dinner at the White House, if he would commit to publicly opening investigations in Ukraine.

The December meeting at the White House is not the first report of Parnas and the President discussing Ukraine. The Washington Post has reported that in April 2018 at a small fundraising dinner in a suite at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, Parnas told Trump that the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, was unfriendly to him and his interests. Trump, according to the Post report, which cited people familiar with Parnas’ account of the event, suggested that Yovanovitch should be fired.

A year later in May 2019, Yovanovitch was recalled from her post.

Another close encounter

A separate encounter — also not previously disclosed — between Parnas and the President could provide further evidence that Parnas and Trump knew each other. In August 2018, months before the White House Hanukkah party, Trump traveled to upstate New York to attend a fundraiser for then- Republican congresswoman Claudia Tenney.

Among the handful of wealthy donors in attendance was Parnas. Photos viewed by CNN provided by two of the attendees feature Parnas mingling with people and having his picture taken alongside Trump. Both attendees said they got the impression that Trump and Parnas knew each other. During a Q-and-A session, Trump called Parnas by his first name, though they did have nameplates in front of them.

One of the sources said Parnas seemed quite proud of his interaction with Trump.

These meetings add further understanding of the extent to which Parnas and Fruman, aided by Giuliani, entered into the President’s inner-circle. CNN has recently reported that since 2014 there are eight documented times when Parnas and the President were with each other, including taking pictures together at campaign events and attending high-dollar fundraisers.

Parnas, a prolific user of social media, tended to post those encounters with Trump. But the photo of Trump and Parnas together at the White House in December is the last encounter that Parnas posted of himself with the President.

The two sources who Parnas confided in about the Hanukkah meeting at the White House tell CNN that they were often with Parnas over the past eighteen months, and that he “worshipped” the President.

Parnas disenchanted with Trump

However he felt back then, those two sources say Parnas now feels quite differently about Trump. The day after Parnas and Fruman were arrested on October 9 and charged with criminal campaign finance violations, Trump publicly denied ever knowing them, a move that was enormously upsetting to Parnas, according to three sources close to him.

“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump told reporters from the South Lawn of the White House on October 10. “Maybe they were clients of Rudy. You’d have to ask Rudy, I just don’t know.”

In the weeks since his arrest, Parnas has become disenchanted with Trump, these sources say. He’s even signaled that he’s willing to cooperate with the Congressional impeachment inquiry. Parnas’ lawyer Bondy said his client would comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents and testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry in a manner that would allow him to protect his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Prosecutors allege Parnas and Fruman illegally funded Republican politicians and campaigns with money from foreign nationals. Prosecutors also say the pair funneled $325,000 into Trump’s flagship super PAC, America First Action from an unknown source.

Both Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty and are currently out on bail and on house arrest in Florida awaiting trial. Both men also have a history of being accused of wrongdoing in civil court filings, though they were never criminally charged. One allegation against Parnas from 2008 involves a man who says he was threatened by Parnas after the man accused him of squatting in his Sunny Isles Beach condo. Parnas denied making the threat and told police he’d been renting the condo without a lease based on a verbal agreement with the man.

Fruman’s estranged wife, Yelyzaveta Naumova, accused him during their divorce proceedings of beating her and possessing a large amount of cocaine and other drugs, which he allegedly wrapped and passed out as party favors. Fruman denied the allegations

Parnas’ relationship with Giuliani and Fruman has also been strained, Parnas’ two confidants tell CNN. That’s a far cry from the days when the trio frequently met at the Trump Hotel and chartered a flight together.

Last December, the day before the Hannukah meeting at the White House, Giuliani brought Parnas as his guest to the funeral of former president George H.W. Bush.

Now, Giuliani and Parnas snipe at each other through their lawyers.

Unlike Fruman, Parnas is no longer represented by one of the President’s former lawyers, John Dowd. “Igor has much more money than Parnas and can afford a strong defense team,” says one of their confidants, trying to explain the split.

Meanwhile Parnas is trapped without his phones (in the possession of the government) in his house in Boca Raton, Florida. His former friends don’t reach out, not wanting to get involved in the multiple investigations that plague him.

“In a strange way I feel sorry for Lev, for the mess he is now in” says one of his confidantes. “He never thought he did anything wrong; he was working for a President he really believed in. He was a hustler but also a nice man who gave people nice gifts. I would think all this is deeply upsetting for him.”

‘I’m the best-paid interpreter in the world’: Indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas touted windfall from Ukrainian oligarch

Earlier this year, Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, received a sudden windfall of money from a prominent Ukrainian oligarch who is fighting extradition to the United States and is suspected of having ties to the Russian mob, according to four sources who spoke with Parnas.

This summer, Parnas told potential business associates that his company began receiving payments from the oligarch, Dmytro Firtash, who is living in Austria while fighting bribery charges in the US, the sources told CNN.

Parnas also told these people he met with Firtash several times over the summer while in Vienna. In June, according to one of these sources, Parnas vouched to Firtash for two well-known Washington lawyers who later brought up Firtash’s plight in a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General William Barr.

These new details appear to reveal a much more substantial relationship than previously known between Parnas and Firtash, and how Firtash’s years-long extradition battle suddenly collided with Giuliani’s push to dig up dirt on President Donald Trump’s political opponents.

They could also raise the stakes for Giuliani, whose financial ties are being examined by federal investigators. A company owned by Parnas paid Giuliani $500,000 for consulting in the fall of 2018. Giuliani maintains that the money did not originate overseas.

CNN previously reported that a counterintelligence probe of Giuliani is also underway. Giuliani has maintained he’s acted appropriately in the interests of his client, President Donald Trump.

Bodyguards and private jets

Parnas has emerged as a pivotal figure in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, which triggered impeachment proceedings against the President by House Democrats.

Giuliani, with help from Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman, led a shadow foreign policy campaign with the goal of securing Ukrainian investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.

Giuliani also advocated for the removal of the former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her post in May.

In private conversations with would-be business associates before his arrest this month, Parnas boasted that his newfound luxurious lifestyle was bankrolled by Firtash, two sources told CNN. Beginning in mid-August, this included around-the-clock bodyguards, two luxury SUVs for his entourage, and at least six private charter flights in the past several months, according to the sources as well as documents exclusively obtained by CNN.

Giuliani was on at least one of those flights, according to the documents.

Parnas now has private security guards outside of his home in Florida, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Firtash’s lawyers have downplayed the relationship between their client and Parnas. In statements, they describe Parnas as merely an interpreter hired to communicate with Firtash, who does not speak English.

“Mr. Firtash met Mr. Parnas for the first time in June 2019. Mr. Firtash had no business relationship with Mr. Parnas or Mr. Fruman,” according to a statement from the law firm of diGenova & Toensing, which represents Firtash. “Mr. Parnas was retained as a translator by the law firm of diGenova & Toensing. No money has been paid to Mr. Parnas by Mr. Firtash beyond his work as a translator for the law firm.”

But two sources who spoke with Parnas tell CNN that he talked about how he was cultivating Firtash for his own business interests. “I’m the best-paid interpreter in the world,” Parnas joked to the sources who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity.

Firtash’s legal team is still fighting his 2013 indictment on bribery and racketeering charges in Chicago. A spokesperson for Firtash’s company, Group DF, declined to comment when reached by CNN.

Firtash made his fortune selling Russian gas to the Ukrainian government, and the Justice Department previously described him as an “upper-echelon” associate linked to Russian organized crime.

Firtash denies any ties to organized crime and maintains his innocence.

Parnas and Fruman, along with two of their business associates, are accused of violating campaign finance laws by funneling money from foreign donors into US political campaigns, including Trump’s flagship super PAC. All four men pleaded not guilty. Lawyers for Parnas and Fruman declined to comment.

Landing in Firtash’s orbit

This summer Firtash shook up his legal team, which had been led by Lanny Davis, the well-known Washington lawyer who was special counsel for President Bill Clinton, and represented Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Parnas played a pivotal role in Firtash’s decision to replace Davis with Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.

Parnas vouched for them directly to Firtash at a meeting in Vienna in June, specifically touting their personal ties to Giuliani, a source close to the lawyers told CNN.

The husband and wife legal duo are well-known Republicans, frequent defenders of Trump on cable news and nearly joined Trump’s legal team last year. diGenova says he’s known Barr for 30 years— connections that could prove valuable in Firtash’s ongoing extradition fight.

Firtash was arrested in 2014 and the Austrian Supreme Court finally approved his extradition in June, though some legal obstacles still remain while he seeks to overturn the ruling.

A source with knowledge of the meeting told CNN that Parnas was the middleman who, a month after the Vienna meeting, formally met with Firtash’s legal team as well as diGenova and Toensing back in the US.

The July meeting took place at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Present were Parnas, Fruman, diGenova, Toensing and two other Firtash representatives, a source with knowledge told CNN. Also in attendance, the source said, was David Correia, one of Parnas’ business partners who was also indicted in the campaign finance conspiracy.

At some point shortly before that meeting, the deal was sealed. Toensing and diGenova joined Firtash’s legal team and, they later met personally with Barr and other Justice Department officials, where they asked for the criminal case against Firtash to be dropped. The Washington Post was first to report the meeting, and that Barr declined to get involved.

A Justice Department official confirmed to CNN that the meeting occurred, and that diGenova and Toensing’s request was rejected. A spokesman for diGenova and Toensing declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Parnas was reaping the benefits of his new connection to Firtash.

Flights up and down the East Coast

Associates noticed a change after Parnas returned to Boca Raton from his summer meetings with Firtash, sources close to the situation told CNN.

Whereas one year earlier, Parnas was telling his wealthy contacts that he was short on cash and needed loans, he was now living the high life — surrounded by bodyguards, traveling in luxury SUVs and jetting up and down the East Coast on private chartered planes.

Quite suddenly, Parnas was able to settle an old debt with local businessman Felix Vulis, whose lawyer previously told CNN that he lent $100,000 to Parnas in October 2018, partly because Parnas claimed to be so poor he could not afford to pay for his own son’s bris.

Three sources told CNN that a January invoice for about $30,000 from a charter jet company in Florida was left unpaid for months. But in August, after the Vienna trips, Parnas started using the company again and agreed to a payment plan, the sources said.

They also started to ramp up their own spending. Between August 23 and October 6, Parnas and Fruman used their company, Global Energy Producers, to pay for six private flights up and down the East Coast, according to documents obtained by CNN.

Parnas told some associates that Firtash was funding the flights, those three sources told CNN. He also told some of them that Firtash was now paying all the expenses for Global Energy Producers.

According to flight manifests obtained by CNN, Giuliani and his friends and family joined Parnas and Fruman on a flight from Florida to New Hampshire in late January.

Proposed Qatar gas deal

By September, Parnas wanted to find a way to be paid more legitimately by Firtash, he told three people. On August 19, Parnas and Correia appeared on a sunny afternoon at a cigar bar, Club Monte Cristo, in Boca Raton, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. Fruman was supposed to attend but was stuck in traffic.

At that meeting, Parnas and Correia tried to sell an American energy magnate, whom Parnas cultivated through Giuliani, on a deal involving their new patron. Correia asked if the businessman would open a letter of credit to buy gas from Qatar, where they claimed to have a contact. Firtash, Correia explained, would in turn sign a letter of credit to him and buy the gas at a mark-up.

Correia, Parnas and Fruman would take a share of the profits. Firtash, they claimed, would be a natural partner for the project given his history selling Russian gas into Ukraine. While Parnas gave the impression the Qatar deal was Firtash’s idea and had his blessing, according to two sources who spoke to CNN, it’s unclear what if anything Firtash actually knew of the proposal. His lawyers have stated that he had no business relationship with Correia, Parnas or Fruman.

In the end, the American businessman balked over concerns about working with an indicted oligarch, and ultimately declined the offer.

Correia’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

Bringing it back to Biden

The next month, on October 4, shortly after House Democrats requested documents from Parnas and Fruman, flight records show that Parnas chartered a jet to Cape Cod. Parnas told two sources that he was there to meet his lawyer John Dowd, who previously represented Trump during the Mueller investigation.

Democrats have since subpoenaed Parnas and Fruman for documents, though Dowd has pushed back. Dowd directly tied Parnas and Fruman to the President when he told lawmakers that some requested materials could fall under attorney-client privilege because his clients “assisted Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump.”

The flight records indicate that Parnas and Fruman chartered a private jet from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Washington on October 8, the day before they were arrested at Dulles while boarding a plane to Vienna. Giuliani lunched with Parnas and Fruman at the Trump International Hotel in Washington just hours before they were arrested, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The purpose of their trip to Vienna, as CNN previously reported, was to meet up with Giuliani and former Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin, a major player in the widening Ukraine scandal because of his discredited claims against the Bidens.

As vice president, Biden led a push by the Obama administration that was joined by the International Monetary Fund and other European nations to have Shokin removed because he was not prosecuting corruption cases.

By the time of Parnas’ attempted trip to Vienna this month, Shokin was already involved in Firtash’s case. Shokin had submitted an affidavit to an Austrian court supporting Firtash’s arguments against extradition, claiming there was political interference by the US.

It was in that affidavit that Shokin first made the unfounded claims about Biden, which Giuliani promoted for months after speaking with Shokin earlier this year. That conversation happened over Skype after Giuliani unsuccessfully lobbied the State Department and White House to grant Shokin a visa so they could to meet face-to-face.

There is no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

Parnas and Giuliani hoped to book Shokin for a Fox News interview in Vienna, where he could levy his allegations against Biden for the first time on American television, according to four sources. It never happened.

CNN’s Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this story.

How two businessmen hustled to profit from access to Rudy Giuliani and the Trump administration

Long before they burst onto the national scene with their high-profile arrests at Dulles International Airport earlier this month, Soviet-born businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were already turning heads in Republican fundraising circles.

“They seemed like hustlers — but not in a bad way. In a good way,” one high-ranking Republican operative familiar with the pair told CNN.

But a CNN review of campaign contributions and court filings, as well as interviews with nearly a dozen people with knowledge of Parnas and Fruman’s interactions, tell a different story. The pair raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars and jetted around the world touting their connections to Giuliani and the Trump administration while pushing for business and favors, even claiming to arrange a Fox News interview, right up until the day they were arrested for conspiracy and campaign-finance related charges.

At one point, they pushed a Ukrainian businessman to pay them to bring Trump administration officials to Ukraine. At another time, they convinced a Florida-based businessman to loan them $100,000 so they could connect him with Giuliani and other prominent conservatives. And in a third instance, they attempted to influence the management board of a Ukrainian gas company.

“They presented themselves as successful businesspeople with business interests across the country and in Europe,” said the GOP source, who requested anonymity, citing the ongoing criminal probe into the men. “They just said they loved the President and what he’s doing.”

When the pair made a $325,000 donation to a pro-Trump super PAC in May 2018, they were subjected to standard vetting designed to detect any problems or conflicts with major donors, the source said.

“They didn’t find any reason why we shouldn’t take their money,” said the Republican with knowledge of the matter. “So we did.”

On the day the indictment was unsealed, the PAC itself said, “America First Action takes our legal obligations seriously and scrupulously complies with the law,” according to a statement issued by the group the day the indictment was unsealed.

But the pair’s business and networking activities over the past year had raised red flags with several prominent businessmen and their attorneys, CNN has learned.

Parnas and Fruman were in federal court on Wednesday after being arrested several weeks earlier in a corridor at Dulles airport near Lufthansa departing flights. They pleaded not guilty to allegations of funneling Russian money into Nevada politics and of circumventing federal campaign finance laws to make straw donations to advance the political interests of at least one Ukrainian official, including the $325,000 donation to the pro-Trump PAC, America First Action.

Defense attorneys for Parnas and Fruman declined to comment for this story on Wednesday.

“Radioactive wolves”

Bruce Marks, an attorney in Philadelphia who represents prominent Eastern Europeans, told CNN in recent days there was a Russian proverb that applied to Fruman and Parnas.

“Don’t go in the forest if you’re afraid of wolves,” Marks said. “And these guys, they just weren’t wolves, I mean they were radioactive wolves.”

Marks represents the Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, who is a major supporter of the new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the lead-up to Zelensky’s inauguration this May, Parnas and Fruman approached Kolomoisky during a trip to Israel.

They wanted a six-figure payment, Marks said, and in exchange they told the billionaire they could set up a meeting between Zelensky and a delegation of American officials.

“My recollection is that they were talking about Vice President Pence, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and they said that they needed to have money in order to ensure that they would come,” Marks told CNN. They also touted their connection to Giuliani to the Ukrainian businessman, Marks said.

“They were going to be responsible for arranging for American government officials to come to Mr. Zelensky’s inauguration,” he added.

Kolomoisky refused, Marks said.

There was no indication that Pence, Perry or anyone in the Trump administration or Ukrainian government were aware of those efforts.

Perry and State Department officials did travel to Ukraine for the inauguration, arranged through official government channels.

Search for cash

It wasn’t the only time Parnas and Fruman tried to use their connections to Giuliani to push for cash. In March of this year, they pitched their influence and ties to Trump’s administration to a Ukrainian gas executive at an energy conference in Houston.

And they’ve been spotted in years of photos alongside Giuliani, Trump and even other lawyers to the President. Giuliani did not return multiple requests for comment on this story.

Over the past year, the pair hustled for hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and payments.

In the fall of 2018, Parnas was telling his wealthy contacts that he was short on cash and seeking loans, according to three people familiar with his requests. Among his alleged troubles, one source said, was that he needed money to pay Giuliani to be a spokesperson for one of Parnas’ companies. Giuliani has said he was retained by that company to provide business and legal advice because of his related experience.

That wasn’t their only ask. South Florida attorney Robert Stok told CNN in an interview that Parnas and Fruman came to a wealthy client of his seeking money, claiming they were so short on cash they couldn’t even pay for Parnas’ newborn son’s bris.

Stok said the men asked Felix Vulis, a Russian-American natural resources magnate, if he could kick in some money for the event.

They had also promised to open doors for Vulis through their connections to Giuliani and others, including the Washington lobbyist Brian Ballard, the former chief of staff to Mike Pence Nick Ayers and others. This added to Parnas and Fruman’s credibility with Vulis.

Vulis was intrigued enough to loan them $100,000, writing a check to Parnas’ company Global Energy Producers in October 2018, which included a memo for a “loan to Igor and Lev (two month),” according to Stok and other records reviewed by CNN.

“The thing that made him really pull the trigger was the fact he felt sorry for them, because of their financial constraints,” Stok said. Any proposed networking in Republican circles never happened, Stok said.

When they were slow to repay, Vulis sued. Vulis told their since-indicted associate David Correia over text message he had been ripped off, and that he planned to tell Giuliani, Ayers and others that Parnas and Fruman would face a lawsuit. Correia pleaded not guilty.

Parnas and Fruman fought the case for months but ultimately repaid the debt a few weeks before Giuliani publicly admitted to asking Ukraine for political help, a key early development in the House impeachment inquiry. The exact details of their settlement with Vulis remain private.

This August, “all of a sudden they were able to fork over a check,” Stok said.

An aborted trip to Vienna

Two weeks ago when they were arrested, Parnas and Fruman were preparing to fly to Vienna, Austria, to meet Giuliani and another key figure in the impeachment investigation, Ukraine’s former prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, according to four sources familiar with their trip. Shokin is the same Ukrainian official who former Vice President Joe Biden — along with other Western leaders — had pushed to have removed over concerns he wasn’t prosecuting corruption.

While questions in Washington swirl around Shokin’s role in this controversy, Giuliani, Parnas, Fruman had specific plans for the former Ukrainian official up until the day of their arrest. According to those four sources, they told others they were headed to Vienna to help with a planned interview the next day: Shokin, they said, was scheduled to do an interview from the Austrian capital with Sean Hannity.

A spokesperson for Fox News did not provide CNN with a comment.

CNN’s Evan Perez, Michael Warren, Drew Griffin and Sara Murray contributed to this report.

‘Forceful, blunt and undiplomatic’: the ambassador now at the center of the impeachment probe

When Gordon Sondland arrived in Brussels as the US ambassador to the European Union in July 2018, it didn’t take long before people were reminded of his American boss.

The hotel executive struck many of his European counterparts as something of a mini-Donald Trump. He started renovating the US embassy. He freely gave interviews and was a fixture on Twitter. He threw lavish parties and boasted of his growing relationship with Trump.

In the corridors of the European Parliament, Sondland worked to build personal relationships with heads of state and diplomats. Though he knew it was a breach of protocol, Sondland’s habit of calling officials by their first name was an attempt to build a personal rapport, but also struck some as off-putting in the rule-bound capital of the European Union. So did his penchant for speaking bluntly.

One veteran diplomat tells CNN that Sondland would ridicule the EU for being obsessed with regulations. “At the same time, he was open and candid — just not a believer in the traditional values that have kept Europe and the US so close in the last 70 years.”

In discussing trade, Sondland would complain that the EU was “ripping off” the US, said Jeremy Shapiro, a research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who interacted with Sondland. Shapiro says that Sondland would also threaten his European counterparts with a “Chinese-style stand-off” if they didn’t cooperate on trade.

“When he speaks he’s forceful, blunt and un-diplomatic and it aggravates people,” said Shapiro.

A key player

Sondland is now a key player in an impeachment inquiry examining whether the President tried to use US military aid as leverage in his effort to get a foreign country to investigate a political foe.

On Thursday, Sondland, who remains in his post as ambassador, will testify behind closed doors to the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees that are leading the Democratic impeachment inquiry into Trump and Ukraine. Their investigation was spurred by a whistleblower complaint alleging Trump sought help from Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s position on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings.

Sondland is a crucial witness for Democrats’ impeachment case. Lawmakers have already interviewed multiple current and former State Department officials, and Sondland has popped up in their testimony in several instances, including text messages turned over to Congress in which Sondland and a top US diplomat in Ukraine debate whether $400 million in military and security aid was being withheld in connection with Ukraine opening an investigation.

“I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor texted to Sondland on September 9.

Taylor is expected to testify before the committees on Tuesday.

A self-made hotelier from Portland, Oregon, Sondland was for years the Republican Party’s go-to bundler in the Pacific Northwest. After donating to the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney in 2012, Sondland had initially supported Jeb Bush and then Marco Rubio in their 2016 presidential campaigns.

The irony of his current predicament is that he was not welcome in Trump World and had to force his way in, according to multiple former White House officials.

According to two Trump campaign advisers, Sondland angered Trump when he denied his campaign the use of his hotels as fundraiser venues after Trump’s negative remarks about the family of a slain Muslim-American soldier in the summer of 2016. One of Sondland’s business partners is Muslim.

But after Trump won, Sondland found himself on the outside looking in. “Gordon was desperate to win the approval of Trump,” said one of his long-time Republican friends who worked in the White House. To earn Trump’s favor, Sondland ended up donating $1 million to the inauguration.

Sondland’s change of heart did not surprise people who know him. David Nierenberg, a wealthy investor and friend of Sondland, told CNN that Sondland always aspired to connect himself to people of power.

“People like me collect books and wine and Gordon collects relationships with people in power,” said Nierenberg, adding that a glimpse of Sondland’s personal office offers a telling window into his ambition. Lining the room are photos of Sondland alongside well-known politicians, including Romney, and both Presidents Bush. What’s striking, says Nierenberg, is that pictures of Sondland with politicians outnumber those of his own family. “You can see his ambition in the photographs.”

Remarkably unremarkable

After his inauguration donation, Sondland’s name was suddenly on a list that former White House adviser responsible for personnel, Johnny DeStefano, regularly put in front of the President, says a person with knowledge. Still, it took Trump months to come around to the idea of nominating Sondland.

One Senate aide remembers that given all the other Trump nominees deemed unfit by many Democrats, Sonland seemed harmless. “He blended in the background,” the aide said.

“What is maybe most remarkable in retrospect is how unremarkable his nomination seemed at the time,” said another Congressional source familiar with Sondland’s confirmation. “He was very obviously a donor pick and not someone with much prior foreign policy experience, but other than that, our records and our staff’s recollections of it are that there wasn’t much else that stood out during his confirmation process. I definitely don’t think at that time that anyone guessed he would have ended up in the middle of a fiasco like this.”

Once confirmed, Sondland was viewed as a problem by the national security teams at the White House and at the State Department, two administration officials told CNN. Sondland did not feel bound by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or national security adviser John Bolton. He could call the President whenever he wanted, and did, they said.

Bolton’s spokesperson declined to comment. A State Department spokesperson also declined to comment.

“Once he was an ambassador he was going to put himself in the middle of things, that’s who he is,” says a Republican political consultant.

Sondland would reach out to Bolton at times to try to set up meetings, but Bolton would often refuse to meet him, one of the administration officials explained.

That same official told CNN that Sondland would often confuse other countries that dealt with him, because he blurred the lines of who was in charge of administration policy. Sometimes the White House or State Department would ignore his initiatives because they were not always consistent with policy, the official said.

Ukraine is not usually in the portfolio of the EU embassy, but Sondland may claim it was always in his briefing book, according to a source familiar with what he is likely to testify.

In her testimony to Congress this week, Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser, said that she regarded Sondland as a security risk, a source familiar with her testimony tells CNN. Hill told Congress that Sondland frequently used his personal cell phone to conduct official diplomatic business, and that she worried his lack of experience could be exploited by foreign governments.

What will he say?

Sondland is still expecting to show up on Thursday and speak to impeachment investigators, according to a person familiar with the EU ambassador’s preparations. Sondland’s legal team has publicly pointed to the State Department regarding any document requests, saying State would be the entity to turn any discussions of official business over to the Hill.

Sondland hasn’t heard from the White House or State Department with requests to block all or parts of his testimony Thursday, the person said. Last week, the State Department stopped Sondland from speaking to Hill investigators, prompting them to subpoena him. Hill’s legal team had refused to honor a request from the White House to consider some of her communications privileged.

Sondland, the source said, is pushing back on the idea that the White House’s national security advisers expressed alarm about a possible quid pro quo with Ukraine, saying that Hill and Bolton never made it known to Sondland that they were concerned.

Even emails between Sondland and Hill, Trump’s former Russia specialist, were “cordial” and “collegial,” with the ambassador keeping her updated on his activities in Ukraine, the person said.

Sondland contends that he never understood that the President sought an investigation of Joe Biden, according to the source, even when Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was pushing for a Ukrainian investigation of the natural gas company Burisma and into foreign interference in the 2016 election. Sondland contends he did not understand that Trump sought political help from Ukraine at least until after the July 25 call transcript was released, where Trump had brought up Biden, according to the source.

The source also contends Sondland’s interactions with Giuliani were far less than others perceived, though necessary to achieve progress with Ukraine.

“If you wanted to get this meeting with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, then you could either abandon that or you could work through Rudy (Giuliani),” the person said, again describing what Sondland may say on Thursday. “They came to understand that what Rudy wanted was a public statement by Zelensky to look at Burisma and the server in 2016.”

Some of Sondland’s friends worry about his potential exposure. “I hope that he did not cross any lines that he might now regret,” said Jordan Schnitzer a real estate developer in Portland, Oregon, and a longtime friend of Sondland.

Sondland’s friend David Nierenberg told CNN that he had emailed Sondland as the Ukraine scandal was breaking, reminding him that Richard Nixon did not lose the presidency because of the break-in at Democratic National Committee, but rather because of two years of lies and cover-ups. “I concluded my message, therefore, by saying whatever you do, tell the truth, if there’s anything that you regret doing or not doing on reflection that admitted, freely, apologize for it and make things right because you have the rest of your life ahead of you.”

“Thank you,” Sondland replied. “You’ve always given me good advice.”

Trump wanted to release his taxes in 2013 to show how smart he was for paying so little

President Donald Trump’s fight to keep his tax returns private is at odds with his own thinking in 2013 and 2014 that releasing them as part of a presidential bid would make him look like a smart businessman who had spent years lowering his taxable income, according to two people with firsthand knowledge of conversations at the time.

Trump ultimately changed his mind after an adviser says he convinced him not to release his taxes, and he has spent years claiming he can’t because he’s under audit by the IRS.

Sam Nunberg, Trump’s political adviser from 2011 to August 2015, tells CNN that during a meeting he had with Trump in the summer of 2013 at Trump Tower, the future president said he was comfortable releasing his tax returns and, even, that he thought it would be a good idea. Nunberg assumed this was because of how little Trump must pay in taxes.

“He thought he could defend the return,” says Nunberg, who did not himself view Trump’s returns. “I inferred from the conversation that he believed that it was a low number and he’d look savvy.”

A second person, a former senior adviser to Trump, who also joined them for lunch that day, recalls Trump being enthusiastic about releasing his returns for this reason.

Nunberg remembers that at the time Trump had recently returned from delivering a political speech in Iowa and that his motivation to look like a scrappy businessman was fueled by the failed presidential bid of Mitt Romney. “He felt that Romney had avoided looking successful,” says Nunberg. “Romney had posed beside a shopping cart in his jeans. Trump wanted to appear to be the opposite of that. He was proud of his business track record.”

In May 2014, Trump told an Irish television station that he would “absolutely” release his tax returns if he entered the race. “If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely,” he said. “And I would love to do that.”

It wasn’t until November 2014 that Trump abandoned the idea, according to Nunberg. At that point it was still eight months before Trump announced for president. At another one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, Nunberg says he convinced Trump to change tack, and told him that federal election rules obliged him to release only a broad financial statement, rather than his full tax returns. Trump liked the idea because he could show how rich he was, says Nunberg.

“He wanted to look rich rather than smart,” Nunberg says.

Neither the White House, Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow, nor the Trump Organization responded to a request for comment.

A losing fight

That change of heart nearly five years ago has had massive repercussions. During the 2016 campaign, Trump became the first major party nominee not to release his taxes in more than 30 years.

As President, he has faced numerous legal challenges seeking the release of his tax returns, including from House Democrats and the New York district attorney.

In fighting to keep them private, Trump has deployed an assortment of arguments both legal and prosaic, ranging from claims he’s under audit by the IRS to simply stating his taxes are “none of your business.” Trump has also acknowledged that he has fought to “very hard to pay as little tax as possible.”

But after a string of court losses, Trump’s unprecedented struggle to block the release of his tax returns is looking legally tenuous and appears more likely to head to the Supreme Court.

On Friday, Trump lost his appeal to stop House Democrats from subpoenaing his taxes from his longtime accountant Mazars USA. In a 2-1 ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld a lower court ruling saying the firm must turn over eight years of accounting records.

Trump can appeal to the Supreme Court to stop Mazars, but courts, including the Supreme Court, previously have refused to curtail Congress’ subpoena power.

A matter of vanity

Speculation has swirled around why Trump hasn’t released his taxes, including that they could reveal long-denied ties to foreign interests or that he has donated embarrassingly little to charitable organizations. Trump’s critics have also suggested that a full public airing of his tax records might prove that he has exaggerated his wealth and isn’t as rich as he claims to be.

It’s this last reason that is closest to the truth, according to Nunberg, who told CNN it’s his impression that Trump’s real motivation for not releasing his taxes was a simple matter of vanity.

A tax return of a New York real estate developer typically makes them look much less wealthy than they really are, on account of complex rules that include the ability for owners of profit-making buildings to write them off as losses.

Nunberg says the reason he suggested Trump not release his tax returns came down to three factors. First, by then Trump had told him that he was in fact under audit by the IRS. Secondly, he and Roger Stone, a mentor to Nunberg and himself a former Trump adviser, had started to realize that some of Trump’s business history — the bankruptcy of the Trump Organization in the 1990s in particular — would come under attack and the returns might highlight that.

Third, Nunberg assumed, given his knowledge of the common tax practice of New York real estate magnates, there would likely be a vast discrepancy between Trump’s net worth and what his tax returns showed — and that this might be difficult to explain to voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Nunberg knew that tax laws for commercial real estate developers are notoriously riddled with loopholes peculiar to that industry.

“I wanted him to run. I wanted him to feel as comfortable as he could. I didn’t want any complications or hiccups. I tried so that this wouldn’t hurt the Trump brand in any way,” Nunberg said.

Changing his story

By early 2015, Trump was starting to slightly change the way he answered questions about his taxes. In February of that year, he told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he would “certainly show tax returns if it was necessary.”

By October, he was hedging even more, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he was considering releasing his tax returns. “I’m thinking about maybe when we find out the true story on Hillary’s emails,” he said of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The financial statement Trump filed with the Federal Election Commission in July 2015 was 92 pages long and claimed $1.4 billion in assets and $265 million in liabilities.

Nunberg was fired from the campaign in August 2015, shortly after the financial statement was released.

During the presidential campaign Trump used the excuse of being under audit as the chief reason he could not release his taxes. He’s repeated that defense as President. It’s true that every president is audited every year, but there is no law that forbids them from releasing their returns while under audit.

“The President has fought releasing his tax returns since the early days of his campaign,” said the former senior Trump adviser who says they still regularly speak with the President. “He has no interest in showing them or he would have released them. As usual I expect the Democrats will be disappointed if they are released, as they might just show Trump is a savvy, successful wealthy businessman.”

But in May The New York Times reported that 10 years of Trump’s tax records the paper had viewed, starting in 1985, appeared to show the exact opposite, and that Trump had lost $1.17 billion during that period.

The paper reported that, according to the tax records, Trump would have “lost” more money than any individual taxpayer in the entire country. Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, told the Times that statements about the records were “inaccurate” but pointed to no specific inaccuracies. He later added that IRS transcripts “are notoriously inaccurate.”

In a response to the Times, a senior White House official said, “The president got massive depreciation and tax shelter because of large-scale construction and subsidized developments. That is why the president has always scoffed at the tax system and said you need to change the tax laws. You can make a large income and not have to pay large amount of taxes.”

In other words, Nunberg’s assumptions about why Trump’s tax returns would be damaging to the Trump brand were spot on.

Former US special envoy for Ukraine plans to appear before House committees this week

Former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker is still planning to appear at his deposition Thursday in front of three congressional committees, according to two sources familiar with Volker’s latest thinking.

Volker’s plan to follow through with his deposition comes after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused House Democrats of intimidating and bullying State Department officials by calling for their depositions in the Ukraine inquiry starting this week, something he says is “not feasible.”

It remains unclear whether the four current State Department officials will be deposed in the coming days by House committees, according to congressional sources.

CNN reported Saturday that Volker had planned to appear for the deposition.

In a letter to trustees of the McCain Institute on Saturday, Volker wrote that Congress requested his testimony and that he would “be complying with that request.”

Some background on Volker: His appearance before the Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs committees was announced just hours before the news broke Friday evening that he had resigned.