Feds Arrest 2 Florida Businessmen Linked to Giuliani on Campaign-Finance Violations

Two men with ties to President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and who are believed to be natives of former Soviet republics will appear in federal court in Virginia Thursday on campaign finance charges.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Florida businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested Wednesday. Giuliani, the lawyer for President Donald Trump, said in May he was representing both men.

A spokesman for he Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office confirmed the arrests to Reuters.

Details of the charges were not immediately known but they have been under investigation for campaign finance-related crimes. In May 2018, according to the Journal, they donated $325,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC through a private LLC.

Parnas and Fruman had dinner with Trump around the time of the donation, the Journal reported. They introduced Giuliani to several current and former prosecutors in Ukraine as he investigated allegations of corruption between former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and officials in Ukraine.

House Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry over allegations that Trump tried to use his office to sway Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to order a probe of the Biden matter. Biden is one of the leading Democrats for president in 2020.

Giuliani and John Dowd, the lawyer for the two men, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.