Photos from a trip to London in June 2019 show President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a now-indicted associate Lev Parnas having a VIP experience at two baseball games between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
The trip also included Giuliani speaking at a luncheon for a Ukrainian charity group connected to Parnas and Igor Fruman, another recently indicted associate.
Photos posted on social media show Parnas attended the charity event, as well as an official from a public relations firm that has worked with the Ukrainian government along with a former spokesman and associate of Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash.
Firtash, who resides in Vienna, is fighting extradition to the US on unrelated bribery charges, which he denies. It is unclear if Fruman also appeared at the event.
The photos from the overseas visit further show the extent of Giuliani’s involvement with the pair and how his links to Parnas and Fruman and their charity brought him into contact with Ukrainian-connected individuals at a time he was seeking to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden.
Ukraine Scandal
The visit, according to tweets from Giuliani that included geotags of his location, lasted several days. Giuliani tweeted on June 26 he was “getting ready to fly to London” for the baseball games. His tweets were geotagged in London on June 28, and are geotagged back in New York on July 2.
Parnas and Fruman, who allegedly aided Giuliani’s efforts to dig up political dirt on Biden, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Wednesday to charges that they funneled foreign money to US campaigns.
The two were arrested earlier this month attempting to leave the country and were indicted on four counts, including conspiracy to violate the ban on foreign donations to federal and state elections, making false statements and falsifying records to the Federal Election Commission.
Giuliani told CNN in an email he did “not recall meeting anyone associated with Firtash” and that “part of the trip” was paid for by a podcast that has yet to launch. He added the trip “included two meetings with an unrelated client, a luncheon speech and three 45-minute interviews we submitted and haven’t yet been used.”
Giuliani declined to provide any other details on the podcast — such as which individuals or company are backing it financially – other than a claim that he also did interviews for it during a July trip to Albania.”
“Busy days and all completely innocent,” he said. “I’d be interested to see how this is twisted.”
Fruman did not comment. John Dowd, a lawyer for Fruman, who previously served as a lawyer for Trump in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference, repeatedly declined to comment. A lawyer for Parnas did not respond to a request for comment.
Photos reveal who was with Giuliani
CNN’s KFile identified Giuliani’s London travels with Parnas through photos on the former New York City mayor’s Twitter account and other public photos posted on social media on June 29 and June 30. Photos from both days show Giuliani and Parnas, and who appears to be Fruman, at the game.
Giuliani and Parnas can be seen chatting in the Yankees’ dugout with retired baseball greats Dave Winfield and Bobby Bonilla. In other photos before the game, Giuliani can be seen with both Parnas and Aaron Boone, the manager of the Yankees.
Giuliani reportedly said in a deposition related to his divorce he was paid to go on the trip by the still unlaunched podcast, which he also later told CNN in an email. Maria Ryan, a “good friend” of Giuliani’s claimed in several tweets she and Giuliani, whom she called “a “business partner” would be conducting interviews with executives from the league, Yankees, and Red Sox during the trip. Giuliani tweeted the podcast would be, “truly great nformatie[sic].”
Ryan is a New Hampshire-based health care executive. It is unclear what the podcast is about. Ryan did not respond to emails seeking comment.
A spokesman for the Yankees told CNN that Giuliani purchased four tickets for the game from the Yankees, but that the league handled on-field credentialing. It is unclear how Parnas and Fruman ended up on the field.
“Neither Mr. Parnas or Mr. Fruman were credentialed for the games in London. I am unaware of how they ended up on the field,” MLB spokesman Pat Courtney told CNN in an email.
A Ukraine charity tied to Parnas and Fruman
During the visit, Giuliani also appeared at a luncheon to benefit the Ukrainian Jewish community of Anatevka, a settlement near Kiev that helps Jews forced to flee Eastern Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict there.
Photos posted on Parnas’ Instagram account, a screenshot of which can be seen in a video on the Wall Street Journal’s website, indicate the event was a “founders’ luncheon” for the “British Friends of Anatevka,” featuring “honorary mayor” Rudolph Giuliani.
Both Parnas and Fruman are involved with American Friends of Anatevka, a charity for which Fruman is a director and where Parnas is also reportedly on the board. Giuliani was named an “honorary mayor” of the settlement by Moshe Azman, a politically connected Ukrainian rabbi who also is listed as the president of American Friends of Anatevka.
In May of this year, Giuliani cancelled a trip to Ukraine where he intended to press Volodymyr Zelensky, then-the country’s president’s elect to investigate Biden. The reason for Giuliani’s trip was to give a paid speech to American Friends of Anatevka on May 14, according to comments Giuliani made to the New York Times.
A photo from the London event, posted on Facebook by Curzon PR in July, shows Giuliani with two consultants for the company, Maryana Greenberg and Anthony Fisher. Curzon PR and Greenberg boast of having previously worked with the Ukrainian government on projects.
Fisher is a director of the British Ukrainian Society, and a former spokesman and representative for Dmitry Firtash. Fisher previously served as the director of the DF Foundation – now the Firtash Foundation, according to photos and U.K. non-profit documents and Curzon PR.
Fisher did not respond to requests for comment. Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Firtash’s attorneys Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, did not say if Giuliani met with any Firtash associates during the trip. Toensing and diGenova did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. Corallo previously served as spokesman for Trump’s legal team during the Russia investigation. Greenberg did not respond to a request for comment.
Firtash reportedly sought to dig up dirt on Biden to obtain Giuliani’s help with fighting his extradition. He is represented by husband-and-wife lawyers Toensing and diGenova, who hired Parnas to work as a translator earlier this year.
It is unclear who else attended the event. Friends of Anatevka declined to answer questions about the event through their Facebook page and later said they would forward any questions to Greenberg of Curzon PR.
CLARIFICATION AND UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that, after publication, Corallo clarified his position as spokesman for Toensing and diGenova, and not for Firtash himself. It has also been updated to reflect that Toensing and diGenova did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
