its eastern border. Putin has the power, if he wants to use it, to make Ukraine simply cease to exist.

Lev Parnas inserted himself into the maelstrom of TrumpWorld with a $50,000 donation during the 2016 campaign, and a $325,000 donation to the Trump super PAC, America First Action, in 2018. He was invited to functions at Mar-a-Lago and the White House, and photographs of Parnas with Trump, members of his family and high officials in the Trump administration have been all over TV screens this week. Parnas was in Ukraine working for Giuliani and texting Rick Perry, Giuliani, various Trump aides and Trump friends like Tom Hicks Jr., who was chairman of America First Action until he left to become co-chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Parnas remained aloyal member of TrumpWorld until the evening of Oct. 9 last year. That night he finished up a dinner with his partner Igor Fruman and Rudy Giuliani at the Trump International Hotel and traveled out to Dulles Airport for a flight to Vienna. Before boarding the plane, he was arrested by the FBI and charged with campaign finance violations.

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Parnas found himself in jail and was soon set up by Trump attorney Jay Sekulow with some heavy D.C. legal talent: Kevin Downey, who was also the lawyer for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and John Dowd, Trump's own former lawyer. Parnas met with the two legal eagles in the federal lock-up and within moments concluded that "they were trying to keep me quiet," as he explained to Rachel