dmitry firtash. do you want back story on dmitry firtash, how he got to be important in that part of the world, why he might factor into all of this now, i should mention i did just write a book about it. i wrote this new book, "blowout," that is just out. chapter 19 in my book is kind of about this which is weird and uncanny, but it's true. and the basic store of him is that the putin government installed dmitry firtash in ukraine in the middle of a series of deals that were designed to make him into a billionaire, designed to make him the dominant player in the ukrainian energy business which is very handy for russia that the guy who they installed in that job would be running the ukrainian energy business right next door. u.s. prosecutors said he's an upper echelon associate of russian organized crime. dmitry firtash is in vienna. he is fighting extradition to the united states where he's wanted on bribery charges in conjunction with a huge corruption case. just tonight, nbc has fascinating new re

they cut dmitri firtash a sweetheart deal in ukraine.ash was given the exclusive right to buy gas from russia to sell to ukraine, at a very large profit, about $800 million a year, clear profit in 2007 alone. firtash's company wasn't making anything, it wasn't even necessarily moving anything, it wasn't really doing anything at all except getting paid. ukraine could just as easily have bought the gas with no middleman and no markup. but putin wanted both the middleman and the markup because dmitri would turn out to be handy and so would the assurance of fantastical corruption at the very heart of the ukrainian state and so would the prospect of all the richest and most powerful and influential people in ukraine being dependent on russia's every whim. it cost the russian gas company gazprom a pretty penny straight out of russian government coffers. but it was worth it. firtash would have plenty of cash to spread around to shape ukraine in ways that putin would appreciate. some of that cash went back to moscow as tribute. but even more of

his name is dmitry firtash. for years he was the kremlin main power player in ukraine. the putin government set him up in business in ukraine as its cutout. the deals that putin set up for him made him very rich and very powerful in that country. he in turn then funded pro-putin political parties in ukraine, including funding the career of trump's now-imprisoned campaign chairman paul manafort what he was working for pro-putin interests in that country. the problem is that u.s. law enforcement considers dmitry firtash to be an upper echelon associate of russian organized crime and the justice department has indicted him in a gigantic bribery scandal. they want to put him on trial in the northern district of illinois. now, he's been under house arrest. dmitry firtash has been out on bail, under house arrest, fighting efforts to extradite him to the united states to face felony charges. he's been fighting those efforts for years. i've been obsessed with this guy for a long -- i mean, he's the reason kind of that i wrote this book. it's weird that it just came out at the s

law enforcement considers dmitry firtash to be an upper echelon associate of russian organized crime and the justice department has indicted him in a gigantic bribery scandal. they want to put him on trial in the northern district of illinois. now, he's been under house arrest. dmitry firtash has been out on bail, like $174 million, under house arrest, fighting efforts to extradite him to the united states to face felony charges. he's been fighting those efforts for years. i've been obsessed with this guy for a long -- i mean, he's the reason kind of that i wrote this book. it's weird that it just came out at the same time this is happening with the president's impeachment. as interesting as this story is, and as important as it is to understanding that part of the world, what bloomberg is reporting tonight kind of makes it all fall into place. what bloomberg is reporting tonight is that the way we may have gotten ourselves into this impeachment drama we are in in this country is, when furtash's case took a bad turn for him this summer, this thing for which the president is now being

it says that it was obtained from dmitry firtash. he lives in vienna, austria, and he never gets to leave. he always has to stay in vienna, austria. why is that? that's where he is under house arrest. he is a ukraine an billionaire, a favorite of the kremlin who is a billionaire because of the kremlin. he is described as an upper echelon associating of russian organized crime. he was arrested several years ago after the u.s. government requested his arrest because they wanted him extradited to this country to face trial on a multi billion dollar bribery scam. he has been fighting that extradition, trying to avoid getting sent back to the u.s. to go to trial on those charges. within the last few months, dimitri furtash added to his legal representation team a couple of less known u.s. lawyers. people who are less known as lawyers and more known as people who go on fox news and scream about the witch hunt. he has added these pro-trump lawyers to his team. as he is fighting this effort to have himself -- fighting this effort to have him

the problem with getting this stuff from dmitry firtash is that he is under house arrest. he can't deliver, you have to go to him to pick this stuff up. maybe there are lots of other people involved in this scheme who happen to be in vienna, austria, who need in-person visits from rudy giuliani and his tweedle dum and tweedle dee as they try to effectuate this scheme. maybe vienna is full of people helping out with this. but if you step back from this just a second, right, to see who has been working with the president of the united states on this scheme for which he is now being impeached, i mean rudy giuliani admits that he has been working on this scheme with dmitry firtash, this guy labeled an upper echelon associating of russian organized crime. giuliani admits he's been working with him and getting his best anti-biden stuff from him. he also admits he's been working with paul manafort, who is a federal inmate. the president's campaign chairman currently serving a seven-plus year sentence in federal prison on fraud and conspiracy charges. when rudy giuliani's clients

didn't know it was going to be this relatively, dmitry firtash a putin-connected oligarch who has high to organized crime. he has been indicted in the united states, is fighting an effort to extradite him here. firtash also turned up in the impeachment story because he has connections, including financial ties, with these two guys who rudy giuliani was apparently working with to dig up dirt for president trump in ukraine to help him get elected. we have these pretty pictures of these gentlemen because they have been charged on criminal campaign finance charges. they are due to be rained in federal court tomorrow. it was reported that one of these guys was hired as a translator for firtash's lawyers. but now this new scoop from the po"the post" furthers this part of the story in a big way. according to the post tonight, the federal prosecutors in chicago who've been investigating dmitry firtash, trying to get him extraindicted to that court, this prosecutors previously came across the two men, lev parnas and igor true m trueman. par gnash was working as an trespasser for the lawyers as

they hired at least one of these guys who were supposedly helping with the dmitry firtash criminal case, whose activities were reportedly being financed by firtash. supposedly arranging meetings for rudy giuliani all over ukraine as giuliani pushed this scheme to invent this plot line of allegations to use against the democrats and try to exonerate russia, what, to try to spring paul manafort, too? everybody involved here looks like they're potentially in criminal trouble. dmytro firtash, oligarch guy, fighting extradition to this country to face charges in a huge corruption case. rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, is a person of interest in at least two federal investigations. giuliani's guys who apparently were also firtash's guys, they were arraigned in federal court today. one of them was represented by paul manafort's lawyer. that was igor. the other one, lev, pulled the world's most amazing rabbit out of the hat today in federal court in new york. lev today in federal court, his lawyer claimed there may be some complications when it comes to prosecutors in his case reviewing m

i mean, they are connected to dmitri firtash who is russian organized crime, who is under indictmentimself, here who is fighting that and now that is a direct line to giuliani. we have his own lawyers saying that these men were aiding in his defense. his case. it's not real legal work so i don't like using those terms. this is really, you know, you couldn't make this up because no one would believe you, and those photographs are so incriminating. they are a prosecutor's dream come true because they show what you can't explain. there's no way he can say he didn't know them. i mean, sure, the president takes a lot of pictures maybe with people he doesn't know, but there's a whole series of them here. they look very intimate with giuliani. i mean, giuliani, if and when he is under indictment, is going to have, you know, a strong case against him and exhibit 1 is going to be these pictures. >> and, matt, if they are closely connected with kind of deadly russian gangsters, that might make them very inhibited if the federal prosecutors are trying to get some cooperation out of them. >> yea

lev parnas has been working for them as they represent putin connected ukrainian oligarch dmitri firtash. so there's this criminal case, right? sort.95 parallel and alongside the impeachment proceedings on capitol hill. but think about what this one guy represents in those two stories. right? simultaneously as the president is being impeached this guy is part of the legal team representing both the russian organized crime guy under indictment and at the same time what's the phrase from john dowd's note, he's also, quote, assisting mr. giuliani in connection with his representation of president trump. i mean, pick a scandal. pick any scandal in american political history. a president facing impeachment about some scheme he's tried to cook up with some other country to help him in the next election, and what other president could you ever even imagine being up to his neck with this guy who was part of the president's legal team while he's under arrest and also while he's part of the legal time for a russian organized crime figure who's under indictment and fighting extradition to this coun

dmitri wanted on corruption charges in the u.s. and labeled by federal prosecutors as an associate of russian organized crime. giuliani told nbc news yesterday that he was not planning on vitting firtashwas planned for vienna last week and he could not speak for his two business associates who were arrested last wednesday on campaign finance charges as they were about to board one-way flights to vienna austria saying they're similarly timed austrian trips were not in conjunction. >>> from ukraine, south across the black sea where turkey has escalated the assault on syria on the former u.s. allied kurds who did most of the ground fighting against isis in the area and guarding some 12,000 isis prisoners, following president trump's decision not to support the kurds against a turkish offensive, and yesterday, president trump tweeted this. let syria and aside protect the kurds and fight turkey for their own land. i said to my generals why should we be fighting for syria and assad to protect the land of our enemy. anyone who wants to protect syria and assisting the kurds is good with me, russia, china, or napoleon and i hope they do great and isis reporters and prisoners have reportedly be