A2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 , 2021
CORRECTIONSl An article about behind-the-
scenes work on Broadway in
this weekend’s Arts & Style
section, which was printed in
advance, misspells the last name
of a lead production supervisor
at Hudson Scenic Studio. He is
Frank Swann, not Frank Swan.l An Oct. 21 Metro article about
animal cruelty charges against
Jerry Holly, owner of a Prince
George’s County farm from
which three zebras escaped,
misidentified who filed the
charges. It was the county’s
Animal Services Division, not
the Prince George’s County
State ’s Attorney.l An Oct. 6 A-section article
about the launch of a Russian
rocket carrying a film cr ew
intending to make the first
feature-length movie shot in
space misstated when Russia
sent the first human into space.
It was in 1961, not 1962.Download The
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[email protected].Israeli diver finds
900-year-old swordAn amateur diver off the
coast of Israel has discovered a
sword that is likely to have
belonged to a Crusader knight
who sailed to the Holy Land
almost a millennium ago.
Shlomi Katzin came across the
900-year-old weapon on the
floor of the Mediterranean sea
while scuba diving Saturday off
the Carmel coast in northern
Israel.
washingtonpost.com/worldRussia’s Navalny wins
European rights prizeRussian President Vladimir
Putin’s sharpest critic,
opposition leader Alexei Navalny,
was awarded the Sakharov Prize,
a prestigious European award
that recognizes his work in
defense of human rights.
washingtonpost.com/worldIN CASE YOU MISSED ITSome reports that you may have missed. Read more at washingtonpost.com.FBI searches homes
of Russian oligarch
FBI agents on Tuesday
searched two homes connected
to Russian oligarch Oleg
Deripaska — one in Washington
and one in New York — as part of
an unspecified criminal
investigation. Deripaska is a
politically connected tycoon
whose name came up repeatedly
in recent investigations involving
Russia and the 2016 presidential
campaign of Donald Trump. He
is under U.S. economic sanctions.
washingtonpost.com/national
K halilzad resigns as
envoy to Afghanistan
Zalmay Khalilzad, who
negotiated the U.S. withdrawal
agreement with the Taliban
under Donald Trump, has
resigned as special envoy to
Afghanistan.
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Live eventssion to the Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals,” Descano and Virginia
Attorney General Mark Herring
said in a statement Friday, “be-
cause we do not believe the law
allows an individual to circum-
vent the accountability of the
criminal justice system simply be-
cause of who their employer is. We
believe that a jury should have the
opportunity to hear all the evi-
dence and determine whether
these men committed a crime
when they shot and killed Bijan
Ghaisar.”
A lawsuit filed by the Ghaisar
family against the Park Police was
placed on hold by Hilton last year,
and its status remains unclear.
The case was on the verge of trial
last year when the Fairfax indict-
ments were handed up, and Hil-
ton granted the government’s re-
quest for a postponement because
the officers would not be able to
testify in civil court while facing
criminal prosecution.
When the Fairfax criminal cas-
es against Vinyard and Amaya
were removed to federal court last
November, they were incorrectly
classified as civil cases and then
assigned to Hilton as related cases.
When Hilton held his first hearing
on the cases in May, he reclassified
them as criminal cases, but kept
them in his court.
Thomas Connolly, the Ghaisars’
lawyer in the civil case, declined to
comment on Hilton ’s ruling Fri-
day.
After the shooting, as the inves-
tigation dragged on for years,
members of Congress tried to help
the Ghaisars by questioning feder-
al of ficials and holding up federal
appointments. Sen. Mark R. War-
ner (D-Va.) said Friday, “My heart
is with Bijan’s parents, Kelly and
James, and with all of his family
and friends. Bijan’s de ath was a
senseless tragedy and it never
should have happened. It has been
almost four years since Bijan was
killed and his family still doesn’t
have justice with which to carry
on, or closure about what hap-
pened that night.”
[email protected]Hunt Road and Alexandria Av-
enue. “Ghaisar appeared intoxi-
cated while continually engaging
in extremely reckless behavior
and unusual driving,” Hilton
wrote. Marijuana was found in the
car and in Ghaisar’s blood, court
records show, and the officers said
they smelled pot smoke in the
vehicle after the shooting.
“Considering the circum-
stances,” the judge opined, “the
officers were reasonable to fear for
Officer Amaya ’s life and discharge
their weapons when Ghaisar’s
Jeep lurched forward while Offi-
cer Amaya was standing in front of
Ghaisar’s vehicle. The officers’ de-
cision to discharge their firearms
was necessary and proper under
the circumstances and there is no
evidence that the officers acted
with malice, criminal intent, or
any improper motivation.”
Hilton, 80, was appointed to the
federal bench by President Ronald
Reagan in 1985 and took senior
status in 2005 but continued to
take a full caseload. He spent a year
as an assistant prosecutor in Ar-
lington soon after his graduation
from American University law
school and another year as the
commonwealth’s attorney of Ar-
lington in 1974, when the previous
prosecutor stepped down. He han-
dled a v ariety of types of law in
private practice, according to a
2018 profile of him in the Federal
Lawyer, including representing
the Arlington sheriff in federal civ-
il rights cases and serving on the
Arlington police trial board, which
hears officer discipline cases.
Lawyers for Vinyard and Ama-
ya declined to comment Friday.
The two of ficers have been on paid
leave since their indictment in Oc-
tober 2020, and on paid adminis-
trative duty before that. The Park
Police have said that no internal
affairs investigation would be
launched until the criminal case
was concluded. Park Police offi-
cials did not respond to a request
for comment on whether that in-
vestigation would begin now or
wait for appeals to be concluded.
“We intend to appeal this deci-yard, 40, and Alejandro Amaya,
42, soon spotted Ghaisar’s Jeep
Grand Cherokee in Alexandria
and signaled him to pull over, but
he drove off. On the parkway,
Ghaisar stopped, was approached
by Amaya with his gun drawn, and
drove off. He did the same thing a
second time after pulling off the
parkway in Fairfax County. A F air-
fax police lieutenant who joined
the pursuit recorded the sequence
of events on his in-car video cam-
era.
Ghaisar stopped a third time in
a residential neighborhood in the
Fort Hunt area. Vinyard pulled his
marked Park Police vehicle in
front of Ghaisar to block him from
driving away again, but as Amaya
stood at the front of Ghaisar’s Jeep
with his gun drawn, Ghaisar slow-
ly rolled forward. Amaya and Vin-
yard began firing, the Fairfax po-
lice video shows. As the Jeep
moved twice more, each officer
fired again. Ghaisar was mortally
wounded and died 10 days later.
After two years, the Justice De-
partment declined to charge the
officers. Last year, Fairfax pros-
ecutor Steve Descano took the
case to a special grand jury that
indicted Vinyard and Amaya on
charges of involuntary man-
slaughter and reckless use of a
firearm.
But the Constitution holds that
states must defer to federal law,
and federal officers generally have
“supremacy clause” immunity
from state prosecution if their ac-
tions are “necessary and proper”
and undertaken as part of their
duties. Vinyard and Amaya re-
moved the case to federal court,
and argued to Senior U.S. District
Judge Claude M. Hilton that he
should grant the immunity and
dismiss the case. The of ficers did
not testify at a h earing in August
and have spoken only through
court filings.
Hilton agreed the of ficers were
entitled to immunity. He cited
“Ghaisar’s dangerous driving be-
havior and refusal to pull over” as
creating the context for what hap-
pened at the intersection of Fortditch. That’s not fearing for their
lives, that’s murder.” The family
agreed with the decision to appeal
the case, saying, “We will not stop
fighting for justice for Bijan.”
Ghaisar, 25, was an accountant
from McLean who was driving
south on the George Washington
Memorial Parkway in Alexandria
on Nov. 17, 20 17, when he suddenly
stopped in a lane of traf fic and was
hit from behind by a Toyota Corol-
la, court records show. Ghaisar
then drove away, the Corolla driv-
er said, and the Corolla’s passen-
ger called 911 to report the crash.
Park Police officers Lucas Vin-GHAISAR FROM AU.S. judge rules o∞cers’ actions were reasonable
FAIRFAX COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Officers Alejandro Amaya, left, and Lucas Vinyard.SIMA MARVASTIAN
Bijan Ghaisar, pictured in April 2015, was fatally shot by
Amaya and Vinyard in 2017 following a vehicle pursuit.BY SHAYNA JACOBSnew york — Lev Parnas, a
Florida businessman who is an
associate of Rudolph W. Giu-
liani’s, was found guilty on Friday
of using funds from a foreign
investor to try to influence politi-
cal candidates through campaign
donations.
It took the federal jury in U.S.
District Court in Manhattan less
than a day to find that Parnas
committed fraud through dona-
tions to several state and federal
candidates that were bankrolled
by a Russian financier. Parnas
was also found guilty on counts
related to a $325,000 donation in
2018 to a joint fundraising com-
mittee that supported then-Presi-
dent Donald Trump.
Prosecutors told the jury that
the illegal fundraising efforts
do cumented in text messages
and other trial evidence gave
Parnas access to elected officials
and candidates. They showed
photos of Parnas with Trump and
Giuliani, who was the president’s
personal lawyer, schmoozing at
high-end political fundraisers.
Prosecutors also said Parnas
lied to the Federal Election Com-
mission about the source of the
hefty 2018 donation, which he
said in filings was from his start-
up company Global Energy Pro-
ducers. The company was in fact
not profitable and not function-
ing as a real business, prosecu-
tors argued. The donation was
actually sourced through a mort-
gage refinance loan obtained by
Parnas’s business partner, Igor
Fruman, the jury found.
Fruman — whose alleged role
in the events was regularly dis-
cussed in testimony at the trial —
pleaded guilty last month to onecount of soliciting foreign cam-
paign contributions. He’s due to
be sentenced early next year.
Outside the courtroom after
the verdict on Friday, Parnas said:
“I’ve never hid from nobody. I’ve
always stood to tell the truth.”
While Parnas’s trial did not
dire ctly relate to Giuliani or
Trump, the guilty verdict still
provides a l egal coda to a precari-
ous moment in Trump’s presiden-
cy: his first impeachment trial.
Parnas, a Ukrainian native, was
recruited to help Giuliani seek
damaging information on Joe
Biden and his son Hunter before
the 2020 election. Trump was
accused of threatening to with-
hold badly needed aid to Ukraine
if of ficials there did not announce
a criminal investigation into the
Bidens.
Parnas and Fruman were ar-
rested on the campaign-finance
charges in October 2019, not long
after news broke of a phone call
in which Trump pressured the
president of Ukraine to open a
Biden investigation. Once a
Trump fan, Parnas turned on the
president after being arrested,
offering documents and assis-
tance to congressional Demo-crats and apologizing for his role
in Giuliani’s scheme.
Parnas is also slated to face a
second trial in U.S. District Court
in Manhattan for charges related
to defrauding investors in what
prosecutors say was another
sham company — Fraud Guaran-
tee.
The venture purported to offer
a service to other companies that
protected them from fraud. But
prosecutors allege that Parnas
and another man, David Correia,
were actually stealing from their
investors. Correia has pleaded
guilty to charges related to his
role in that case.
As of now, Parnas will not be
sentenced until after that trial.
In the trial that wrapped up
this week, prosecutors alleged
that Parnas used money from
Russian financier Andrey Mura-
viev to try to curry favor with
candidates he believed could
help him and Fruman win licens-
es to operate cannabis business-
es.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan
Cordell Scotten noted that Par-
nas’s own former assistant, who
testified under an immunity
agreement with the Justice De-partment, said Parnas knew the
laws he was skirting by conceal-
ing the true source of donations
to candidates in several states
where cannabis had recently
been legalized.
“Parnas was told again and
again that he couldn’t donate
someone else’s money, and he
couldn’t donate except from a
citizen or a legal resident,” Scot-
ten said.
One donation at issue in the
trial was $10,000 in Fruman’s
name that went to Adam Laxalt,
the former attorney general in
Nevada, who had ties to Trump
and filed lawsuits on his behalf to
try to overturn the election re-
sults in his state. Laxalt lost a race
for Nevada governor in 2018.
Prosecutors say Muraviev sent
two $500,000 payments that
were meant to be infused into
campaign coffers for people seek-
ing offices such as governor and
state attorney general. Parnas
and Fruman allegedly used some
of the money to pay bills.
Parnas’s lawyer Joseph Bondy
argued Thursday in summations
that the case was “absurd” and
that Parnas wasn’t hiding his
activities.
Andrey Kukushkin, who was
also on trial for allegedly conspir-
ing to use Muraviev’s money to
get licenses for marijuana busi-
nesses, was convicted on multi-
ple counts.
His attorney Gerald Lefcourt
argued in summations that his
client was unaware of Parnas’s
maneuvering in political circles
and that he “never intended to do
anything illegal.”
Lefcourt said Parnas and Fru-
man thought Kukushkin was a
“rube... someone they could get
over on” to help them get to
Muraviev’s money.
Parnas and Kukushkin are
both naturalized U.S. citizens.
[email protected]Rosalind S. Helderman in
Washington and the Associated
Press contributed to this report.Parnas is convicted in fraud case
RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prosecutors told the jury that the illegal fundraising efforts gave
Lev Parnas access to elected officials and candidates.Giuliani associate was
charged with campaign
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