Trump lawyer associates plead not guilty to accusations of using foreign money to buy political influence

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have pleaded not guilty to campaign finance violations in a case where they were accused of attempting to use foreign money to gain political influence in the United States.

The two men are longtime associates of Mr Giuliani, and were key figures in the former New York City mayor's campaign to oust former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and to pressure the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, a potential 2020 rival to Mr Trump.

The men were arrested earlier this month in Washington as they waited to board an international flight with one-way tickets. In their charging documents, the two were accused of working to "funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and state office", lying to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and setting up a shell corporation to hide the true source of campaign contributions to top Republican committees.

They are being charged alongside two other men, Andrey Kukushkin and David Correia, both of whom pleaded not guilty in the same Manhattan courtroom last week. Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman both face four campaign finance violations, while Mr Kukushkin and Mr Correia both face just one charge each, in a Nevada conspiracy to influence a state politician there with money from a Russian businessman, as they attempted to set up a marijuana business in the state.

The three charges Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman face beyond those circumstances include laundering foreign money into the American political system, setting up straw donors to hide the source of the funds from the FEC, and then engaging in a conspiracy to "knowingly defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of a department or agency of the United States."

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“Campaign finance laws exist for a reason. The American people expect and deserve an election process that has not been corrupted by the influence of foreign interest, and the public has a right to know the true source of campaign contributions,” William Sweeney Jr, the assistant director in charge of the US office, said during a press conference announcing the charges earlier this month.

“This investigation is about corrupt behaviour. Deliberate law breaking,” Mr Sweeney said.

Both men were given $1 million bail after their arrests, which they have both met. They are currently under home detention, with GPS monitoring that only allows them to go to the Southern District of New York, and the Southern District of Florida, with court permission.

Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman have previously been photographed with Mr Trump, and have also dined with him. In addition, they reportedly have dined with Donald Trump Jr, as well as Republican National Committee chairman Tom Hicks Jr. They have also reportedly visited Mar-a-Lago and the White House.

Since their arrest, it has been reported that both men used their connections to Kyiv and the White House in order to pursue an agenda that would benefit both Mr Trump and their own business ventures.

Mr Giuliani has referred to the men as his clients, though the depth of their financial relationship is not clear.

The president's lawyer told The New York Times earlier this year that Mr Parnas had helped arrange a trip for him to Ukraine to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, who was then the newly elected president of the country.

The New York Times has also reported that prosecutors in New York are investigating Mr Giuliani's ties to Ukraine, where he has been identified as running a sort of shadow diplomatic operation to influence the government there, super ceding traditional US government avenues for communication between the US government and foreign governments.