| THE BIG STORY
Two of Giuliani’s Ukraine associates pleaded not guilty. Here’s how they’re connected to impeachment.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman pleaded not guilty to four counts of campaign finance violations in a federal court.
The two men were arrested and charged last week — they’re accused of violating federal campaign finance laws prohibiting foreign nationals from donating to US political campaigns.
Here’s the thing: they are not bit players, they’re main characters in the impeachment saga. The pair are longtime associates of Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer working for Donald Trump, and they’re deeply connected to the Trump impeachment inquiry. Earlier this week, we reported that the investigation into them has widened.
Before the Parnas and Fruman story gets any further, you need a refresher on their role in the impeachment story. For starters, the two men used their connections in Kyiv and their proximity to the White House to push an agenda that would benefit Trump and their own business ventures.
👉 Republicans have expressed frustration that all the impeachment investigation hearings have been behind closed doors. So a group stormed into the impeachment investigation’s secure room and brought pizza. It was a bizarre escalation.
I texted Addy Baird, one of our political reporters in Washington, DC, to ask WTF that was all about.
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS Boris Johnson’s top team is at war over whether to call an election
The British prime minister is fighting the Brexit war on many fronts, including inside his own government.
There is a battle raging between Boris Johnson’s chief aide Dominic Cummings, other senior Number 10 officials, and Conservative ministers and MPs over what to do now that his attempt to crash his Brexit legislation through Parliament has failed.
Multiple sources have told us that Cummings is behind a renewed push for an immediate election, while Johnson’s ministers and MPs push back because they think the idea is too risky.
SNAPSHOTS A murder investigation has been launched after 39 bodies were discovered in a truck in the UK. A 25-year-old-man from Northern Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the discovery of the bodies in Essex, in southeast England. All 39 people were pronounced dead at the scene with early indications suggesting that 38 were of adult age and one is believed to be a teenager.
ICE deleted surveillance video of a transgender asylum-seeker who died in its custody. Roxsana Hernández died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year. Attorneys representing Hernández's family said ICE was required to preserve the surveillance footage for pending litigation.
Trump said he’s building a wall in Colorado and no one knew what he was talking about. The remark confused many people including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, probably because the state is located nearly smack in the center of the United States, hundreds of miles away from Mexico.
The co-creator of Parks and Recreation thinks Leslie Knope would support Elizabeth Warren over Joe Biden. It was no secret that the show’s main character was obsessed with Biden. However, times have changed, and Michael Schur says 2019 Knope would be rather taken by Warren.
A woman whose tweet inspired Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” will be credited as a songwriter. British performer Mina Lioness, who tweeted a phrase that became the backbone of the hit song, will be given a songwriting credit after a months-long battle with Lizzo’s management. The tweet that started it all:
IF YOU NEED MORE STORIES Mark Zuckerberg tied himself in knots defending Facebook to Congress
The Facebook CEO was in DC to testify before the House Financial Services Committee about his company’s cryptocurrency initiative, Libra.
It did not go great. Zuckerberg began his testimony by admitting that when he came to Congress to talk about Russian interference in the 2016 election, he was defensive. But then he proceeded to be defensive for the rest of the time, too.
Legislators asked the CEO straightforward questions that he struggled to answer. Even inquiries about Facebook’s support of free expression — which he outlined in a speech at Georgetown University last week — proved to be difficult to address.
When lawmakers asked Zuckerberg about Facebook’s policy of allowing politicians to lie in ads, his wavering answers stood out. An intense exchange with Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was telling.
Read Alex Kantrowitz’s account of Zuckerberg’s terrible, bad, no-good day.
NUGS IN THIS CLUB Rihanna went to Drake’s birthday, possibly ate McDonald’s in the club, then went home, and it’s a big mood
The minor news item here is that Drake and Rihanna appear to be friends again after the singer popped up in October’s Very Own’s very own birthday party.
The major news item is Drake, in an ultimate rich person move, ordered McDonald’s to the club for Riri’s crew, because you can do that when you’re a star, I guess?
Anyway, the whole club-McDonald’s-at-the club-going-home journey has a lot of people relating hard to Rihanna. Please, only invite me to your birthday party if you’re going to order me food to the club. Thanks.
I hope it's easy to find the rhythm you need today, Elamin P.S. If you like this newsletter, help keep our reporting free for all. Support BuzzFeed News by becoming a member here. (Monthly memberships are available worldwide). 📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Elamin Abdelmahmoud and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
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