Two of Rudy Giuliani's associates who helped him manufacture dirt on Joe Biden were arrested and charged with campaign finance violations

Sonam Sheth

October 10, 2019 3:21 PM

Two associates of Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, were arrested and charged with violating campaign finance laws late Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

FILE PHOTO: Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, speaks at an event in Ashraf-3 camp, which is a base for the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in Manza, Albania, July 13, 2019.REUTERS/Florion Goga

The two Soviet-born men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are expected to appear in federal court on Thursday.
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Two associates of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani who allegedly helped him dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden have been arrested and charged with violating campaign finance laws, The Wall Street Journal reported .

The two men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, are Soviet-born and were under investigation by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. They are expected to appear in federal court in Virginia later today, the report said.

It's not yet clear what the charges against them entail and what they are specifically accused of doing.

The two Florida-based businessmen allegedly aided Giuliani in his efforts to encourage Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden and the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, according to The Journal.

Trump and Giuliani's pushing Ukrainian officials to probe the Bidens was the focus of an explosive whistleblower complaint filed by an anonymous intelligence community official in August which claimed that Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election" in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Giuliani is a private citizen, but has functioned largely as Trump's key envoy in the Ukraine controversy. He used his connections to Trump and other US government officials to push Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens.

The whistleblower complaint said and Giuliani has acknowledged that Trump and State Department officials enlisted him to work with the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens.

Giuliani was mentioned 31 times in the complaint and described as a "central figure" in the administration's efforts to encourage Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, which included serving as an "envoy" on the matter and meeting with an aide to Zelensky, Andriy Yermak.

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