Some of you might remember the old television show This Is Your Life, hosted by Ralph Edwards. It ran in the US from 1952-61 and was subsequently picked up by other countries, having its longest run in Little Britain. Well, we have a new version playing out in real time as Lev Parnas and his lawyer post image after image of Lev with Trump, his family members, his top aides and numerous Republicans who all claim they don't know him. Chris Cuomo ran a five-minute segment recounting all these meetings with Lev that seemed to slip the minds of so many prominent Republican figures.
In Lev's own words, he went from big-time party donor to close Guiliani confidante to Ukraine inside man for the White House. He implicated virtually everyone in the White House in his interview with Anderson Cooper. If that weren't enough, he went on the Rachel Maddow Show to go through these contacts once again, making her segment the most-watched news episode on television last night, beating out her arch-rival and Trump confidante Sean Hannity.
It is safe to say that Lev is the talk of the town and he seems to have dirt on everyone. Not only does he have copious pictures but plenty of records too, including phone conversations with Devin Nunes that forced the Republican US Representative to admit he had contact with Parnas. That's more than Donald Trump is willing to admit, as he continues to say he doesn't know the man.
None of this appears to be making any impact on Republican Senators who see the impeachment trial as an open and shut case of acquital. Lindsey Graham is one of the few GOP leaders not to be pictured with Lev Parnas so far.
So, who is Lev Parnas and how did he come to be such an influential figure at the center of the "perfect call?" Young Lev came to America in the 80s, fleeing the Soviet Union, and finding work with a real estate company that peddled Trump Organization co-ops in New York. He did well in real estate, accruing a small fortune and moving from Brooklyn to Boca Raton, where he continued to profit off his bogus development schemes, just like his mentor. It was his son, Aaron, who apparently alerted him to Donald J. Trump running for President, at which point Lev decided to cast his lot behind the man he so openly admired.
To read the account in the New Yorker, he soon became a regular at Trump rallies and gatherings, contributing heavily to the campaign, and catching the eye of influential figures like Rudy Giuliani. Lev became an associate of Rudy after the election, offering his services in regard to Ukrainian matters. The Trump team was rather peeved that the Hillary team had been able to dig up so much dirt on Paul Manafort, a one-time campaign manager, and soon found Lev's services useful as a means of payback.
With Hillary not running in 2020, the Trump team had to look for someone else to dig dirt up on so they chose Joe Biden, the front-running Democrat and former Vice-President. Lev promised he could deliver, aided by his sidekick Igor Fruman, also a Ukrainian native. Since the Trump White House couldn't be involved directly in such affairs, they made Rudy the go-to guy, whom Lev and Igor communicated with, but Lev claimed everyone in the White House was in the know.
When this sordid story broke last summer, everyone tried to distance themselves as far as possible from Rudy, Lev and Igor, who appeared like a modern day version of the The Three Stooges. They were literally caught together having lunch at Trump's Washington Hotel the day Lev and Igor were arrested trying to leave the country on one-way tickets to Ukraine. Only problem is that none of them were willing to take the fall, so they started naming names. Soon there was enough dirt to stretch the House impeachment inquiry out for months, but to the Democrats' credit they stayed focus. That wasn't enough for Lev, who is dumping even more dirt in hopes of getting a lesser sentence for his role in this elaborate extortion racket.
So far, he has made a jocular game out of his association with Trump and his confidantes, but it threatens to turn more serious the longer this goes on. Lev loved these photo ops, originally meant to clutter his "I Love Donald" room in Boca Raton. Now he plays the jilted lover determined to remind Donald of all the good times they had together, much to the president's embarrassment.
For his part, Trump tries to keep a stiff upper lip but you can see it quivering a little as he denies once again ever knowing the man. At some point, it will all come out and Republicans will have a very hard time washing their hands of the mess. They acquit Donald J. Trump at their own political peril.
Comments
Post a Comment