Sitting in a packed movie theater in Downtown Miami with his shirt unbuttoned down most of his chest, exposing a mass of gold chains, Lev Parnas watched the story of his life play out on the silver screen.
The Soviet-born former associate of ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in Miami on Thursday night for the Florida debut of “From Russia with Lev,” a new documentary detailing his quest to ingratiate himself with former President Donald Trump’s orbit and his involvement in a scheme to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
After the screening, Parnas and his wife sat before the audience and talked in at-times emotional terms about Trump’s presidency, his run-ins with Republican luminaries and how he came to leave the political movement that helped put Trump win the White House eight years ago.
Now, with Trump seeking the presidency once again, Parnas said that he hopes his story — which played a central role in Trump’s first impeachment nearly five years ago — will help make the case against the former president.
“I’m extremely blessed and thankful that the truth finally got out. I think the most important thing, got out just in time before the 2024 election,” Parnas said during a post-screening Q&A session. “This is the most important election of our lives.”
The documentary, directed by Miami filmmaker Billy Corben and produced by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Corben’s business partner Alfred Spellman, was billed as something of a redemption story for Parnas, a former Trump die-hard who now counts himself among the former president’s critics. It’s set to air on MSNBC on Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. EDT.
Here are some key moments from Thursday night’s screening of “From Russia with Lev.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Florida businessmen with Giuliani, Ukraine ties arrested on campaign finance charges
“I was part of that cult”
Parnas, 52, didn’t mince words when it came to his past support for Trump, describing the former president’s political following as a “cult” that he himself once belonged to.
“I was one of the leaders of that cult. I trained people in how to brainwash people in that cult,” Parnas said during the panel discussion following the documentary screening. “I can tell you as somebody that’s been in that cult and now is out of it, it’s a cult. And after Nov. 5, we’re going to see lots of people coming out of that cult, because it’s going to disappear once Donald Trump loses.”
Parnas was sentenced in 2022 to 20 months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes.
Joining Parnas on the panel was his wife, Svetlana Parnas, who recalled the toll that her husband’s support for Trump took on their family and relationship.
“It was a real period of my life where I was so confused, the man that I knew for so many years, the father of my children has now become this version of himself that twas no longer acceptable in our family, and it changed our family dynamic at its core,” she said.
Speaking during Thursday’s panel discussion, Corben described his conversations with Parnas as a kind of “exit interview with someone who escaped a cult.”
Parnas says he helped get DeSantis elected governor
While Parnas is best known for his efforts to help Giuliani and, by extension, Trump, he also claimed to have deep ties to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. At one point in “From Russia with Lev,” Parnas said that he was responsible for getting DeSantis elected to the governor’s mansion in 2018.
According to Parnas, he was among the first people that DeSantis hugged after getting the news in 2018 that he had won the governor’s race.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Giuliani associate embroiled in Trump Ukraine drama raised money for DeSantis campaign
In a brief interview after the documentary screening, Parnas recounted how he first met DeSantis in 2018, a few months before that year’s gubernatorial primary. At the time, DeSantis was trailing then-Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the polls and was in need of a boost.
“He approached me at the Trump Hotel and basically asked me to introduce him to Trump,” Parnas told the Miami Herald. Parnas said he was reluctant to help DeSantis at the time, because of his opposition to the cannabis industry in Florida.
“I introduced him to Trump and now we’re here,” Parnas said. Trump formally endorsed DeSantis for Florida governor in June 2018. The former president’s support was widely seen as a key factor in DeSantis’ primary victory over Putnam that year.
DeSantis’ office did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment. (A spokeswoman for the governor previously said the two men likely met following an appearance by DeSantis, then a congressman, following a Zionist Organization of America event in Washington in May of 2018).
Parnas’ surprise apology
Parnas’ work with Giuliani centered on digging up dirt on Hunter Biden, the president’s only surviving son who has dealt with his own personal and legal troubles for years. So it came as a surprise when “From Russia with Lev” spotlighted an emotional meeting this summer between Parnas and the president’s son in Los Angeles where Parnas apologized for his actions.
Recounting that meeting during Thursday night’s Q&A, Parnas said the opportunity to meet with and apologize to Hunter Biden was “the most important thing of this whole journey.” After he got out of prison, Parnas recalled, he began following the president’s son on social media and “started getting a look at the actual damage that we caused to him as a human being, to his kids, to his family.”
“For me, myself, I needed to see him, I needed to meet him, I needed to apologize,” Parnas said.
Parnas said that part of what spurred him to reach out to Hunter Biden was his recovery process from a gambling addiction. Part of his 12-step program, he said, was to apologize and seek forgiveness. He said that he believed it was also important for Hunter Biden, who has struggled for years with drug addiction .
“Knowing Hunter going through his own addictions, I knew for him it was very important,” Parnas said.
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