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What Parnas and Fruman's plea meant for Kyiv
Summary
A retrospective on the court appearance that followed Taylor's congressional testimony in the Trump–Ukraine affair.
What did two Giuliani associates' court appearance add to the Trump–Ukraine affair? On 23 October 2019, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman pleaded not guilty at a hearing in New York City. Both were associates of Rudy Giuliani, personal lawyer to U.S. President Donald Trump, and had helped him in a search in Ukraine for damaging information on the president's political opponents.
The charges alleged that they funnelled $350,000 in illegal donations to a pro-Trump political committee and a further $20,000 to former Republican Congressman Pete Sessions. Prosecutors said they did so while acting on behalf of at least one Ukrainian government official.
The testimony the day before
The hearing came a day after William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, testified before Congress. He said he had been told that Trump would withhold military aid to Ukraine, to help his own reelection chances, until Kyiv publicly declared that investigations would be launched. The investigations concerned Burisma Holdings, a company that had hired Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and Ukraine's alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Two tracks, one affair
Taken together, the two days showed the affair moving along separate tracks: a congressional impeachment inquiry examining the aid, and a criminal case examining money and intermediaries. Background written later describes the wider scandal as arising from Trump's attempts to press Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, and says he blocked a congressionally mandated $400 million military aid package. It also describes contacts between the White House and Ukraine's government, which culminated in a phone call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019.
The not-guilty pleas settled nothing about the charges. They did place Giuliani's circle, and its Ukrainian dealings, before a court as Congress heard Taylor's account of the aid.
