Handy Timeline for the Trump Ukraine Scandal
Wondering about the details of the Trump Ukraine scandal? If you’ve following the impeachment hearing, you might think the storyline is pretty simple: President Trump holds up Ukrainian aid as leverage to get them to investigate Joe Biden. That’s part of the story, but there are several other threads worth pulling. It’s useful to follow the paths of the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of this saga, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. As best I can tell, these dedicated opportunists, not only were trying to force an investigation into the Bidens, they were also trying to get charges dropped for a Russian-backed oligarch, laundering money to GOP candidates, and negotiating a sweetheart side deal to funnel Ukranian gas/oil money to Guiliani stooges.
1990s Lev Parnas sells condos for Fred Trump. By 1995 he lives in Trump Village on Ocean Parkway. (source)
2000s Igor Fruman runs an import/export business. Eventually he opens a club Mafia Rave in Ukraine. (exact year not verified)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYlN1UBscRhmimbqMQABlag
2005 Igor Fruman marries Yelyzaveta “Liza” Naumova in Miami.
2013 Oligarch Dmytro Firtash is charged by the Obama administration with bribing Indian officials for access to titanium mines. He’s been fighting extradition since 2013 (currently holed up in Vienna). By 2018 Lev Parnas works for Firtash in an unspecified capacity before joining Firtash’s legal team as a translator. Some speculate Firtash is the source of Parnas’ financing. He is reported to have spent over $1M(source, source)
2013 March 1 Lev Parnas’ Fraud Guarantee company sets up a website. (source)
2014 Russia invades Crimea. Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden joins the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
2014 March 7 Lev Parnas, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. attend a golf tournament at Trump Doral in Florida. Trump and Parnas pose for pictures together. (source)
2014 March 14 Parnas posts “three letters llc!!!!!!!!!!!!” to his Facebook page. (source)
2014 May 25 A popular revolt removes the Russian-backed president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was supported by Dmytro Firtash who made a significant part of his fortune selling Russian gas to Kiev. Petro Poroshenko is elected president of Ukraine.
2014 April 2 Trump is photographed with Lev Parnas. (source)
2014 May 28 Parnas posts, “two words foreign investments!!!!!!!!!!!!” (source)
2015 Feb. 10 Viktor Shokin becomes Ukraine’s prosecutor general.
2015 Fraud Guarantee evicted for not paying rent (source), though Parnas still seems to live well. He’s pictured below in a Rolls.
2015 April Parnas is pictured with Ivana Trump discussing Fraud Guarantee.
2015 Sept U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt accuses prosecuter Shokin of failing to fight corruption and says, “The United States stands behind those who challenge these bad actors.”
2015 Oct 8 Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland testifies in front of the US Senate, that “Shokin’s “office has to be reinvented.” (source)
2015 Oct 23 Parnas and his son meet Donald Trump at a campaign rally. (source)
2015 Dec 8 Joined by leaders across Europe Vice President Joe Biden tells Ukranian leaders to fire Shokin or lose loan guarantees. (source)
2016 Feb 19 Joe Biden again speaks with President Poroshenko urging him to remove Shokin. (source)
2016 March 29 Viktor Shokin, a corrupt prosecutor in Ukraine is fired after the US and the EU pressure the Ukrainian government to remove him. This effort is led by Joe Biden. Note Shokin was fired for the opposite because he was refusing to investigate corrupt companies. (source)
Paul Manafort is hired as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman.
2016 Lev Parnas’ son volunteers for the Trump campaign. (source)
2016 May Yuri Lutsenko becomes Ukraine’s new prosecutor general, replacing Shokin. The White House, the IMF, and leaders across Europe welcome Lutsenko’s appointment.
2016 June 3 The US Government guarantees $1 billion in loans to the Ukraine. (source)
2016 June 20 Paul Manafort becomes chairman of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
2016 Aug 14 Ukrainian officials reveal Paul Manafort recieved millions of dollars in undeclared consulting work for Kremlin-backed Yanukovych. Manafort would eventually go to jail partially for failing to declare this income. (source)
2016 Aug 19 Paul Manafort resigns.
2016 Oct After the Trump Access Hollywood tape comes out Lev Parnas donates $50,000 to Trump. Parnas is interviewed and describes himself as a “friend of Trump’s.” (source, source)
Trump poses for fotos of Parnas at a private event. (source)
2016 Nov Lev Parnas attends Trump’s election night celebration in NYC. (source)
2016 Dec 16 Trump poses with Fruman at a campaign thank you dinner. (source)
2016 Dec 31 Lev Parnas attends Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. (source)
2017 Jan 12 Ukraine’s inquiry into Burisma is finalized and closed, according to the company, though Lutsenko later tells Bloomberg that one sale of an oil storage terminal will still be investigated. (source)
2017 Jan 19 Parnas and Trump attend a Pre-inauguration gala for donors who contributed at least 250K to the inaugural. (source)
2017 Jan Parnas’ business partner David Correla starts peddling the Hunter Biden story, even tweeting at Joe Biden.
2017 Apr 21 Trump starts talking about a conspiracy theory that the Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He says “[The Democrats] get hacked, and the FBI goes to see them, and they won’t let the FBI see their server. They brought in another company that I hear is Ukrainian-based. That’s what I heard. I heard it’s owned by a very rich Ukrainian.” (source)
2017 Apr 28 Again Trump brings up this conspiracy theory. (source)
2017 Jun 8 Rudolph W. Giuliani meets with Poroshenko and Lutsenko. (source)
2017 Jul 25 Trump tweets. “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign — “quietly working to boost Clinton.” So where is the investigation A.G. @seanhannity”
2018 Through Lev Parnas, Viktor Shokin reaches out to Giuliani saying he has damaging information about Joe Biden. (source)
2018 Feb “Mr. Fruman gave $2,700 to the Trump Victory committee, and he and Mr. Parnas attended a fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago for Protect the House, a committee supporting Republican candidates in the midterm elections. They ultimately committed to donating to Protect the House and giving $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, America First Action.” (source)
2018 March 18 Trump and Fruman attend a victory dinner at Mar-a-Lago. (source)
2018 Spring Russian State TV starts peddling several Ukraine narratives. 1) that Ukraine not Russia interfered in the 2016 election 2) that Biden was corrupt 3) that the US ambassador was badmouthing Trump. (source)
2018 April Global Energy Producers LLC is set up listing Parnas and Fruman as backers. (source)
As a sidenote LLCs are a popular mechanism in Trumpworld. A significant portion of Trump’s condos are paid for in cash and owned by LLCs. (source, source, source)
2018 April 30 At a donor dinner at the Trump Townhouse suite at Trump’s DC Hotel, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman tell Trump that the US ambassador is working against him. Trump immediately suggested the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch be fired. Don. Jr. was also in attendance. (source)
May 1, 2018 Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, post pictures from the dinner (erroneously posting it as being taken in the White House). (source)
May 2, 2018 Ukrainian officials stop assisting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation out of concern that doing so would harm their relationship with Trump’s administration. (source)
May 9, 2018 Parnas and business partner David Correia pose with Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex) and commit to raise 20K for his campaign. (source, source)
Later that day Sessions writes the State Department seeking to get Abassador the the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch fired. (source)
2018 May 17 Parnas and Fruman donate $325,000 to America First Action, a super PAC that supports Donald Trump through an LLC they control called Aaron Investments I, LLC. Global Energy Producers is listed as the source of the donation. America First Action employs Corey Lewandowski, and Kimberly Guilfoyle Don Jr’s girlfriend. (source) Wire transfer records show that Aaron Investments had received $1.26 million from a real estate attorney who specializes in foreign money. (source)
2018 May 18 After an Ukrainian oligarch describes Parnas and Fruman as clowns “milking the bull” (they had asked this oligarch to try to arrange a meeting between Giuliani and Zelensky), Giuliani says he advised his clients Parnas and Fruman to press charges. (source)
2018 May 21 Parnas and Fruman have Breakfast with Don Jr. in California and attend political events (source).
2018 May 28 Celebrating Rudy’s Birthday. (source)
2018 Aug Guilani claims he met Parnas and Fruman in this time window. Parnas says he had been working with Guiliani the election in 2016. (source) Parnas’ company Fraud Guarantee pays Guiliani $500,000. (source)
2018 Sept Paras and Don Jr.
2018 Sept 12 Letter from from Fraud Guarantee bragging about the Guiliani relationship: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6575-fraud-guarantee-investor-lette/4b23b27562f348163925/optimized/full.pdf#page=1
2018 Oct In Yerevan, Armenia Giuliani shares the stage with Sergey Glazyev, a longtime adviser of President Vladimir Putin who has been under U.S. sanctions since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Some speculate Giuliani is a conduit between Yerevan and Washington. (source)
2018 Nov Guiliani and Parnas travel to multiple campaign events around the country. (source)
Parnas is phtographed on election night with newly elected Florida Govenor Ron De Santis. De Santis claims he doesn’t know Parnas. (source)
2018 Dec 05 Guiliani attends George W. Bush’s funeral w/ Lev Parnas.
2018 Dec 06 Giuliani, Trump, Fruman, Parnas attend a Hanukkah Party at the White House. (source)
2019 Jan Parnas and Fruman arrange meetings in New York between Giuliani and Yuriy Lutsenko, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General. (source)
Guiliani requests a visa for Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor removed on corruption charges. The State Department denies the visa saying that Shokin is corrupt. (source) Parnas believes Ambassador Yovanovitch is behind the visa denial.
2019 Feb Parnas and Fruman meet with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. They meet at the request of Guiliani acting on orders from Trump. They propose trading a state visit for an announcement into an investigation of the Bidens. (source)
2019 Feb 13 Giuliani and Parnas meet privately with Lutsenko, this time in Warsaw at a meeting attended by Vladimir Putin and Mike Pompeo. (source, (source).
2019 March Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch calls for the firing firing of the country’s special anti-corruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytsky, after it is found he had shared investigative records with suspects. (source)
2019 March Parnas and Fruman start peddling a deal to remake the board of Naftogaz, a multi-billion dollar Ukrainian state gas company controlled by the central government.
In Houston Fruman, Parnas arrange a meeting between Healy E. Baumgardner, a former press relations manager for Rudy Guiliani’s 2008 presidential campaign and Andrew Favorov an executive at Naftogaz.
Healy E. Baumgardner is listed as CEO of a new company called 45 Energy Group (named for Trump, the 45th president). Favorov is told that a plan to bring tankers of liquified gas from Ukraine to the US has been signed off on by President Trump. He is told Ambassador Yovanovitch will be pushed out and that her successor would make the deal happen. Favorov described the meeting as a shakedown. (source)
2019 March 20 In an interview with pro-Trump columnist John Solomon who says Lutsenko alleges that Yovanovitch gave him “a list of people whom we should not prosecute.” The State Department says this is “outright fabrication.” Trump later tweets: “John Solomon: As Russia Collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges.” @seanhannity (source) John Solomon’s information (much of it misinformation came from Dimitry Firtash via Lev Parnas (source).
2019 March 24 Paras, Fruman, Guiliani and Baumgardner meet Trump International Hotel. During this meeting, Parnas again repeated that Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv, would soon be replaced.
Trump Jr. attacks Yovanovitch on twitter.
2019 Mar 25 Parnas meets with Trump’s Legal Team. (source).
2019 Apr 01 Solomon reports that a probe into Joe Biden’s push to fire Lutsenko’s predecessor is underway. Lutsenko tells Solomon that he wants to present his evidence to Attorney General William P. Barr. (source)
2019 Apr 07 Rudy Giuliani, accuses Joe Biden of pushing for the removal of Viktor Shokin, a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor, in order to block a corruption investigation into Burisma. (The investigation into Burisma was dormant by the time the US, along with other western powers, called for Shokin to resign.)
2019 April 11 Parnas visits the White House.
2019 Apr 12 Lev Parnas and Devin Nunes connect by phone. One of several recorded phone conversations and part of a larger pattern of communication with Nunes’ office. (source)
2019 Apr 15 Hunter Biden’s tenure as a Burisma board member ends
2019 Apr 18 Lutsenko withdraws his claim that Yovanovitch gave him a list of people not to prosecute. (source)
2019 Apr 19 Lev Parnas texts Devin Nunes’ aides regarding the effort to push Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden (source).
2019 Apr 21 Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is elected as the new president of Ukraine.
2019 Apr 23 Parnas and Mr. Fruman fly Tel Aviv to meet a Ukranian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who was seen as Mr. Zelensky’s patron. Kolomoisky is fighting money laundering charges in the US. The meeting was arranged on a false pretext and when Kolomoisky discovered the that the real goal was a Guiliani meeting w/ Zelensky, the meeting was cut short. (source)
2019 Apr 25 Trump again suggests Ukraine interfered in 2016. “I would imagine [Barr] would want to see this,” Trump says. “People have been saying this whole — the concept of Ukraine, they have been talking about it actually for a long time.” (source)
2019 Apr Yovanovitch is called back to Washington. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan tells her she will be replaced. (source)
2019 May Russian State TV, bots, and affiliates like RT start pushing an anti-Yovanovitch line and pushing Biden conspiracy theories. They also continue push the conspiracy theory that the 2016 election interference was run by Ukraine.
2019 May 7 Yovanovitch is officially removed. (source) Zelensky holds a 3 hour meeting about Giuliani and how to deal with him. (source)
2019 May 9 Guiliani announces a trip to Ukraine, “because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.” (source)
2019 May 11 Guiliani cancels his trip. Lutsenko and Zelensky meet for two hours, according to the whistleblower, with Lutsenko requesting to stay in his position.
2019 May 14 Trump tells Vice President Pence not to attend Zelensky’s inauguration. According to the whistleblower “the President did not want to meet with Mr. Zelenskyy until he saw how Zelenskyy ‘chose to act’ in office.”
Giuliani tells a Ukrainian journalist that Yovanovitch was “removed … because she was part of the efforts against the president.”
2019 May 16 Lutsenko says there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Bidens.(source)
2019 May 19 Trump references his Biden conspiracy theory on Fox news. (source)
2019 May 21 Rudy Giuliani meets w/ Moshe Azman the leader of the Hasidic community idn Kiev. The meeting was arranged by Parnas and Fuman (source)
2019 May 23 The administration notifies Congress that it intends to release hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid money to Ukraine.
Sondland meets with Trump and shares his “positive views” President. They press for an Oval Office visit with him. Trump is skeptical and tells his team to talk to Guiliani. (source)
2019 May 29: Trump sends Zelensky a congratulatory letter inviting him to a White House meeting.
2019 June 20: In an interview with Fox News, Trump again links Ukraine and the effort to hack the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election
2019 Jun 21: Giuliani tweets that Zelensky is “still silent on investigation of Ukrainian interference in 2016 election and alleged Biden bribery of Pres Poroshenko.”
2019 Jun 28 Sondland, Volker, Taylor and Perry take a call with Zelensky. Sondland asks to keep regular interagency officials off the call. Volker tells the participants that he intends to be explicit with Zelensky during an upcoming meeting in Toronto about what Zelensky needs to do to secure a White House meeting
2019 July 29 Guiliani and Lev Parnas attend an exhibition Yankees game in London.
2019 Jul 2 Special Advisor on the Ukraine Kurt Volker tells acting ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. that he will use a July 2nd meeting in Toronto w/ President Zelensky to ask for “cooperation on investigations to ‘get to the bottom of things.” (source, source)
2019 July 3 Guiliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman at a cigar bar in London.
2019 July 10 John Bolton describes Rudy Giuliani as a “hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up” after meeting with Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the EU. He further went on to say ““I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up.” (source)
Sondland met with Ukrainian officials in the White House and made an explicit quid pro quo despite the opposition of John Bolton and others earlier in the day. Bolton, alarmed by Sondland’s requests abruptly ended the meeting with the Ukranians early. Sondland then took the Ukranians to a room in the basement of the White House to press for ““investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens and Burisma,” according to Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman who attended the meeting (source).
2019 July18 Trump withholds $392m in military aid from Ukraine that had been allocated by Congress. The decision comes through the OMB through Mick Mulvaney (source, source)
2019 July 19 Text start flying between Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, the then special envoy on Ukraine, and Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Kyiv. They call themselves the three amigos. “I [spoke] to Zelenskiy and gave him a full briefing. He’s got it,” Sondland, a major donor to Trump and the Republican party, texted Volker.
Volker replied: “Most [important] is for Zelenskiy to say that he will help investigation — and address any specific personnel issues — if there are any.” (source)
2019 July 21 Taylor texts Sondland via text. “President Zelenskyy is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously,” he writes, “not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics.”
2019 July 25 Volker texts with Yermak and again expresses the importance of Zelensky saying he will launch investigations in advance of a call w/ Trump. He also writes, “Heard from White House-assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.”
Trump calls Zelenskiy and asks him for a favor. Trump discusses Giuliani and Barr and bring up Biden. (source)
Post-call, Yermak texts Volker, “Phone call went well. President Trump proposed to choose any convenient dates. President Zelenskiy chose 20,21,22 September for the White House Visit.”
Immediately after the Zelensky call at least 4 national security officials raise concerns. (source)
2019 July 26 Ambassador Sondland tells Trump via phone call that the Ukrainians are ready to move forward with an investigation. (source)
Late July The transcript of Trumps call is “locked down” and put on a secure server usually reserved for top secret information.
July 31 Trump calls Putin. The Russians say “Trump and Putin spoke about restoring full diplomatic relations one day.” The White House does not release the call transcript. (source)
2019 Aug 02 Giuliani meets with one of Zelensky’s advisors in Madrid. (source)
2019 Aug 09 Sondland tells Volker the White House is ready to confirm avisit to the White House “as soon as Yermak confirms”. He added: “I think Potus [Trump] really wants the deliverable.”
Sondland asks Yermak to forward a draft of what Zelenskiy is going to say. (source)
2019 Aug 10 Volker presented a US draft of what Zelenskiy should say to Sondland. “Special attention should be paid to the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States, especially with the alleged involvement of some Ukrainian politicians. I want to declare that this is unacceptable,” the draft statement said. “We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 US elections, which in turn will prevent the recurrence of this problem in the future.”
“Perfect. Let’s send to Andrey after our call,” Sondland replied.
Taylor seems to get nervous. He asks “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations.” Sondland tells him to call instead of texting. (source)
2019 Aug12 The Whistleblower complaint is filed to the C.I.A.’s general counsel Courney Simmons Elwood. Soon after she also called John A. Eisenberg, a deputy White House counsel and her counterpart at the National Security Council to assess the complaint.
2019 Aug 14 Mr. Eisenberg and Ms. Elwood both spoke to John Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division.
2019 Aug15 Demers reads a transcript of the call and passes the information up to William Barr (who is named in the call).
2019 Aug week of 26th The whistleblower files a second complaint to Michael Atkinson the acting National Security Council director using a step that offered special legal protections.
2019 Sept 09 Text between: Taylor and Sondland.
Taylor: “The message to the Ukrainians (and Russians) we send with the decision on security assistance is key. With the hold, we have already shaken their faith in us. Thus my nightmare scenario. As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Sondland rather than answering immediately, calls the President. His next text send several hours later has a strange formal tone.
“Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind,” he told Taylor. (source)
2019 Sept 12 The Ukranian funds are released.
2019 Sept 13 Zelenskiy tweets thanks to the US for “unlocking” funds.
2019 Sept 13 Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, issues a subpoena for the whistleblower complaint following Joseph Maguire’s refusal to release it.
2019 Sept 25 Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet at the UN.
2019 Sept 26 In a closed door meeting Trump suggests that “in the old days” spies were killed.
2019 Sept 26 The whistleblower complaint is released. It alleges the White House tried to cover up the Trump-Ukraine call.
2019 Sept 27 Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine, resigns.
Giuliani cancels a repeat appearance at a Russian-led trade conference in Armenia that will feature an appearance by Vladimir Putin. He was scheduled to appear with Sergey Glazyev, a Putin advisor sanctioned by the US.
2019 Oct 03 The President’s lawyer John Dowd who also represents Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, sends a letter to the House Intelligence Committee claiming they are harassing his clients with their “overly broad and unduly burdensome” requests. (link to letter) Parnas later provided documents to the House Intelligence Committee showing that Trump signed off on Dowd representing them. (link)
2019 Oct 06 Lawyers for the first whistleblower say they are now representing a second.
2019 Oct 09 Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are arrested trying to board a one way flight from Dulles to Vienna by US prosecutors from the Southern District of New York. Each has been charged with four counts, including conspiracy to commit campaign finance fraud, false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and falsification of records. The indictment summary is quite a read.
2019 Oct 10 Trump denies knowing Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.
