>> We know that Rudy Giuliani has been wrapped up with some really shady characters. But take a look
at how shady monetarily some of them are we have new charges against Andrey Muraviev. A Russian
oligarch who apparently donated or transferred a ton of money to a couple of his accomplices.
And some of what Giuliani got involved in and we're gonna give you all the details.
Andrey conspire as accused of conspiring with Lev Parnas. And Igor Fruman to secure retail
marijuana licenses by funneling $1 million to political candidates in 2018. According to an
indictment unsealed on Monday, the oligarch agreed to provide
$1 million to fund hundreds of thousands of dollars in state.
And federal political donations in Florida, Nevada, Texas, New York and New Jersey leading
up to the November 2018 elections. And so this is quite a bit of money, not in terms of you're
not gonna be able to swamp the overall spending of the 2018 cycle. But to influence people on
a specific issue $1 million dollars spread around the white right way, that might be able to do it.
And obviously the Russian oligarch can't do that directly. They can't make those sorts
of donations, but they've got these parnas and fruman who can do it for them. And it's
particularly insidious on a topic by the way, marijuana legalization I'm in favor of. But I
want the fundraising for the actual campaign spending for it to be done the right way.
Jessica, what do you think? >> I think this is ridiculous,
right? Rudy Giuliani, I feel it's almost a case study of a person. If we were to remove
morals and values, what would happen? It's ridiculous because during
the presidential campaign of course he was involved with Russian oligarchs.
And digging up dirt on Biden and that almost made a little bit of sense. Okay,
you're working for this campaign, you're terribly corrupt individual,
but you're trying to make your candidate win. Now, it's just doing favors for Russian
oligarchs. It's absolutely insane. >> Yeah. By the way in a couple of
minutes we're gonna turn to Giuliani's ongoing involvement in some of this.
But, right now, Muraviev, is facing up to ten years in prison if convicted on
both counts around that. Especially because there was a number of different efforts to.
You're not gonna be surprised to find out model where exactly the money was coming from,
where it was going. What it was gonna be used for and all that
partisan fruman were arrested in connection with the scheme back in October 2019.
Harness was convicted last October fruman pleaded guilty last year. And so again, as in some of
the earlier stories we were talking about, it can take a very long time to adjudicate some of this.
In any event, the US attorney who's still pursuing this says that. Muraviev
attempted to corrupt our political system to advance his business interests.
The southern district of New York is committed to rooting out efforts by foreigners to interfere
with our elections. Although again to be clear, not just in New York, they were spreading
around around a number of the large states. That either had already or were considering
different sorts of marijuana legalization.
Just go anything. >> Yeah, I think
the fact that it's about marijuana legalization is so interesting. This is
not what I would imagine Russian oligarchs would be interested in an American politics.
But it's clear that they just see a huge business opportunity and that's why they're doing this.
>> Yeah, I definitely think it's a new industry. I think in theory long term there can be a lot of
money to be made there. I think it's one of the fears that people have about this
topic more generally is that. There has been this effort for decades to get legalization
and already you're seeing corporations.
And rich individuals reaping the benefits jumping in and starting up the companies and all that. The
sorts of people who are victimized and demonized by the fact that marijuana was illegal for so
long. Are already monetarily being pushed out in a lot of states. And that's why the way that
legalization is done the terms of it, what you need to do to be able to get a license to sell.
There's some fairly significant financial hurdles in that in a number of different states
on the purchasing end as well. I can attest to myself. And that is why we want legalization and
in some ways any legalization is better than the status quo. But the way that it's done definitely
matters and I think it's important that we don't take the current state as just acceptable forever.
In California, for instance, marijuana is legal, but there are massive extra taxes and
fines. And all that that make it far more expensive. It is difficult in most
states if you're one of the owners of one of these companies to use the banking system.
It's just like we have the starting off point, but I feel like there's a lot that can still be done.
>> Yeah. I mean we've gotta expunge records. We've gotta release people
who are currently in prison on drug offenses related to marijuana.
I mean that's number one and two when we talk about legalization. But also having some kinda
incentive structure that favors people who were at the brunt of having marijuana being illegal.
Who are in jail from selling this stuff and using this stuff or just carrying it. I mean we've gotta
let them reap the benefits more than these white venture capitalists or even Russian oligarchs.
>> Exactly, yeah. At the very least can they be our oligarchs rather than Russian ones.
No, I don't really care. But anyway, returning to Rudy Giuliani, he remains
under criminal investigation. As authorities decide whether his interactions with Ukraine
officials required him to register as a foreign agent. And his involvement with
partners and Fruman of course isn't helping him in that area. Again, it's a several years ago.
One would hope that we would at least know by this point if there's gonna be any legal consequences.
He's not acting as if he really fears it. Where do you see Rudy Giuliani going from here? Do
you think it's likely that they're gonna charge him with anything if trump does make it back in?
Is he dragging Giuliani to the white house once
again? What do you think? >> I'd really like to see
us get Giuliani on something? I think one of the weirdest things about this is even
if things go to court. You never know what kinda judge are gonna get on this stuff.
And I think Giuliani is probably the person in American politics who is really difficult
to predict. It feels like he will do anything. >> Yeah, well there's certainly no law. And that's
one of the reasons that it's so easy to imagine a variety of different crimes have been committed.
I mean it's easy to forget with the whole Ukraine blackmail investigation. Hunter biden thing like
we focused on trump and I understand why he was the one who ended up getting impeached over it.
But Giuliani was so integral to that entire
effort and he didn't even get the minor consequences that trump did.
Trump wasn't really hurt by the impeachment or whatever, but at least it's a black mark on his
record. Giuliani just skated through totally fine. I guess he didn't do anything wrong. Or at least
that's what the Southern District would have you believe as of right now, investigation is ongoing.
Not exactly holding my breath.