Donald Trump Heard With Lev Parnas On 2018 Audio File, Extent Of Relationship Appears Greater Than Admitted

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to be unacquainted with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the two Rudy Giuliani associates who were charged last October with allegedly funneling hundreds of thousands in Russian cash into a pro-Trump super PAC. However, new evidence continues to emerge that his relationship with the two Ukrainian-born businessmen was far more extensive than has been previously known. On Thursday, a newly released audio recording captures Trump and Parnas together during a 2018 gathering at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to a report from The Washington Post.

The recording, which may be heard below on this page, was transmitted to The Washington Post by Joseph Bondy, an attorney for Parnas, who reportedly said that he also sent a copy to impeachment investigators in the United States House of Representatives.

The recording was made at Mar-a-Lago about 10 days before another leak featuring Trump, Parnas, and Fruman at a dinner for the super PAC that received the allegedly illegal donation, America First Action. As The Inquisitr has reported, the president can be heard commanding an aide to “take out” the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

Also on Thursday, Bondy released a video of Parnas and Fruman at a fundraising event for Trump. Here, he is greeted warmly by Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who hugs Fruman and tells him “I’m so glad you’re here.”

RNC spokesperson Michael Ahrens shrugged off the video, saying that McDaniel “greets hundreds if not thousands of people” every single day, as quoted by The Washington Post.

The newly released audio recording and video, however, appear to show that Trump and other Republican Party officials may have been more closely connected to the Ukrainian-born businessmen than they have previously acknowledged.

Also on Thursday, an investigative report by The Daily Beast stated that Fruman has close ties to Paul Manafort, Trump’s now-imprisoned 2016 campaign chief.

https://soundcloud.com/the-daily-beast-politics/lev-parnas-2018-04-20-174219

The relationship between both men reportedly extends back in time “for years” and goes back well before “Giuliani’s wide-ranging attempts to discredit the evidence that played a key role in kicking off Manafort’s political downfall,” according to Daily Beast reporter Betsy Swan.

A so-called “black ledger” detailing illegal payments received by Manafort for his work elevating Russia-backed Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovich to that country’s presidency helped to trigger the charges against Manafort brought by special counsel Robert Mueller. This eventually resulted in the ex-campaign chief’s conviction and his seven-year prison sentence.

But Giuliani has long sought to prove that the “black ledger” was somehow a fake, according to the Daily Beast report.