Members-Only Article
In journalism talk we call it a “buried lede” when the real news is buried down in the story as a seeming afterthought as opposed to up top as the big thing. And this new article from CNN has what seems like the buried lede of all buried ledes. The article is about the seemingly limitless sleaze of Rudy Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the guys who were picked up at Dulles airport two weeks ago and who pled not guilty today in federal court in Manhattan. Whatever else they were doing for Trump and Giuliani, basically everywhere they went with Rudy they were trying to shake down, consult for, borrow money or rip off every high roller they came into contact with.
But down in literally the last paragraph is something I’d never heard before and I don’t think has been reported elsewhere. Parnas and Fruman (with Giuliani to arrive via a separate flight, apparently) were on their way to Vienna to handle logistics for a blockbuster interview Viktor Shokin (the notorious fired Ukrainian prosecutor) was going to do on Hannity!
Here’s the passage …