Parnas' Version: How Trump and Co. Have Tried to Sabotage Ukraine

[Nevilledog]

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/13404

Former Trump associate Lev Parnas estimates he spends half of his waking hours on Twitter these days, talking to journalists and penning op-ed pieces in order to get out his own version of events. This follows a 20-month sentence for fraud and campaign finance crimes, thanks to a team effort in 2020 to re-elect President Donald Trump via threats to cut off U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

“I just want to get the truth out there,” 51-year-old Parnas told Kyiv Post from his home-turned-prison in Boca Raton, Florida, his somber voice contrasting with the joyful cries of his children in the background.

In a Time magazine article earlier this month, the Ukrainian-born businessman whose family immigrated to the U.S. when he was still a child, struck a remorseful note: “In 2021 and 2022, I was convicted of several serious crimes including fraud, making false statements, and illegally funneling foreign money to the Trump campaign. I was sentenced to 20 months in prison, served four, and am on home-confinement for the remainder. Now that I am paying my debt to society, I think it is important to tell my side of the story.”

No shortage of villains

When asked by Kyiv Post who he thought was most responsible on the Trump team for undermining Ukraine’s national security, he had a laundry list of co-conspirators, some of whom he confronts on a weekly basis on Twitter.

“Of course, the primary movers behind the pressure to destabilize Ukraine were Trump and [his attorney] Rudy Giuliani,” he said. “They threatened to withhold vital aid unless [President Volodymr] Zelensky would officially announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden’s activities in the country.

*snip*