Two Men Who Worked With Giuliani To Dig Up Dirt On Biden Arrested

WASHINGTON — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two key subjects in House Democrats' impeachment inquiry who worked with Rudy Giuliani in an effort to gather damaging information about Joe Biden, have been arrested, a spokesperson for the US attorney's office in Manhattan confirmed Thursday morning.

The US attorney's office did not immediately say what the two foreign-born nationals were charged with, but did confirm that prosecutors out of New York are handling the case. According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the arrests, the charges are related to campaign finance violations.

Parnas and Fruman have donated hundreds of thousands dollars to Republican campaigns and worked with Giuliani to set up meetings with Ukrainian officials to push them to investigate Biden and, more broadly, accusations that Ukraine tried to interfere during the 2016 presidential campaign on behalf of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, as previously reported by BuzzFeed News.

John Dowd, a lawyer representing Parnas and Fruman in connection with the congressional impeachment investigations, did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday morning.

Democrats had asked Parnas and Fruman to voluntarily comply with a request for documents and to appear for depositions. Dowd told the committees involved in making those requests that his clients would not cooperate, and they did not produce documents by the Oct. 7 deadline set by Democrats.

Giuliani declined to comment.

Miriam Elder contributed to this report. This is a developing story. Follow BuzzFeed News for updates.