President Donald Trump has claimed that he doesn’t know Lev Parnas, the political operative who served as one of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s henchmen in trying to get the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
However, an old Instagram post uncovered by the Wall Street Journal shows that Trump once actually wrote Parnas a personal note that lauded him for his friendship.
In an Instagram post from August 2018, Parnas displayed a note that was signed by both the president and first lady Melania Trump that thanked him for his political work.
“Thank you for your friendship and dedication to our cause,” the president and first lady wrote. “Leaders like you in Florida are the key to fulfilling our bold agenda to Make America Great Again!”
Parnas was indicted earlier this month on campaign-finance fraud charges after he allegedly engineered steering donations from a Russian national into American political campaigns. Parnas was a key player in Giuliani’s efforts to put pressure on the Ukrainian government to investigate the president’s political rivals, and Trump has subsequently tried to distance himself from Parnas even though there are multiple photos showing the two men together.