Months before his arrest last month, Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas told several confidants that he and Igor Fruman had privately met at the White House with President Trump and Giuliani where they were given a “secret mission” to have Ukrainian authorities investigate Joe Biden, CNN reports. Acquaintances of Parnas quoted by CNN say the Soviet-born businessman told them the meeting was held on the sidelines of the White House’s annual Hanukkah party last year. Parnas is said to have described a “James Bond mission” he believed he’d been instructed to carry out on behalf of the president. “Parnas viewed the assignment as a great crusade,” one of the sources told CNN. “He believed he was doing the right thing for Trump.” In the wake of Parnas and Fruman’s arrest last month on campaign finance violations, Trump has insisted he doesn’t know the two Giuliani associates, despite being seen with them in several photos. The White House has not commented on claims of a private meeting between the president and Parnas and Fruman at the Hanukkah party, and Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, dismissed Parnas’ claims as a result of “delusions of grandeur.”
