Politics

‘From Russia with Lev’ reveals the dark toll of Trump’s ‘reality show’ presidency

Published

1 year ago

November 12, 2024

‘From Russia with Lev’ reveals the dark toll of Trump’s ‘reality show’ presidency

They say Los Angeles is where you go when you want to be somebody, New York is where you go when you are somebody, and Miami is where you go when you want to be somebody else. It’s always been a sunny place for shady people. (And there’s always a Florida connection: Watergate, 9/11, Ted Bundy, O.J. Simpson.)

Lev Parnas, the Ukrainian American businessman who worked closely with Rudy Giuliani to attempt to dig up dirt on Joe Biden before the 2020 election, who served time in prison on charges including campaign finance and wire fraud and who went on to testify about a number of efforts by GOP leaders, including former President Donald Trump and his close allies, to spread misinformation and mislead the public, is the consummate Florida Man.

When people get released from prison in Florida, their first call is to their mother and their second call is to us to make a documentary about them.

He makes for a provocative star of our new documentary “From Russia with Lev,” which premiered at the “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024” event in New York on Saturday.

My producing partner at our Miami Beach-based production company, rakontur, Alfred Spellman, (half) jokes that when people get released from prison in Florida, their first call is to their mother and their second call is to us to make a documentary about them. But in this case, we caught Parnas on his way to prison. As fellow Florida men, Parnas and I followed each other on the platform formally known as Twitter. Before his federal criminal trial in 2021, I slid into his DMs to set up a lunch meeting in South Beach.

I learned Parnas was familiar with and, fortunately, a fan of our work, so he agreed to tell us his story.

Parnas was born in Soviet Ukraine, and his family fled when he was 4 years old and eventually settled in Brooklyn, New York’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, also known as “Little Odessa.” Per his account, he became a runner for local gangsters, graduated to some of the sketchiest Wall Street brokerage houses and, when his friends started getting arrested, was forced to flee again: this time to South Florida. There, he helped run “mobbed up” penny stock boiler rooms, three of which were suspended for fraud. Then there were illegal poker games in Beverly Hills, seven kids with four women, a pile of unpaid bills, a trail of lawsuits against him and defrauded investors in various ventures, like a movie he pitched that was supposed to star Jack Nicholson and a Florida company with the most Florida name ever, Fraud Guarantee.

How Parnas, of all people, got entangled with the most powerful men in the world, recruited by “America’s Mayor” to engage in “shadow diplomacy,” allegedly shake down two successive Ukrainian presidents and help get Trump impeached (the first time) is as riveting as it is “ridiculous,” to borrow a descriptor from Parnas’ third wife, Svetlana, who participated in our documentary.

The story of Lev Parnas is like Tom Clancy if Jack Ryan were played by Jackie Mason.

We were well aware of the scandal surrounding Parnas in the latter half of 2019, but our introduction to Lev: The Character was via Rachel Maddow’s sensational interview on BLN in January 2020. We never imagined that the inspiration she provided for us then would lead to our producing her first feature documentary four years later. Parnas was clearly broken in that interview, but you could still detect the mischief in his eye and the chutzpah in his voice that got him into this mess.

A man without a country — after he betrayed both of his. Hated by the left for being one of Trump’s “plumbers” and reviled by the right for betraying Trump. We have a running list of potential “pop docs,” which is how we refer to our style of nonfiction storytelling, and we knew we wanted to meet this guy someday.

Parnas’ tale fits flawlessly into our signature subgenre, “Florida F—ery With International Implications,” and Parnas himself is a rakontur archetype: the likable scoundrel. He’s a charismatic raconteur and the ultimate hustler. A man who, like the subjects in many of our pop docs, such as “Cocaine Cowboys,” “The U” and “Dawg Fight,” chased the American dream by any means necessary. But the project quickly evolved into a two-hander. When we met Parnas’ long-suffering spouse, Svetlana, we realized she is the heart, soul and conscience of the story. It’s a madcap geopolitical caper with a lot of humor and a surprising amount of emotion. The stakes could not be higher, and the personalities could not be bigger.

After “537 Votes” (2020) and “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty” (2022), “From Russia With Lev” is the third in our trilogy of biannual election-year docs. This one tries to explain the eccentricities and irreverence of the Trump era, and it’s the first that takes you inside his administration: Hanukkah parties at the White House, paranoid plotting in private dining rooms at Trump International Hotel — the Mos Eisley Cantina of Trumpworld — and the reality show foreign policy of a reality show president.

Billy Corben

Billy Corben is an Emmy, Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning filmmaker. A Florida native, he is a lifelong Miamian and co-founder of the Miami Beach-based production company ragontour. He has directed documentaries including “Raw Deal: A Question of Consent” (2001), the “Cocaine Cowboys” franchise, including the Netflix original “Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami” (2021), “Dawg Fight” (2015), TIFF World Premiere “Screwball” (2018), the HBO Original “537 Votes” (2020) and “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty” (2022).

Politics

Trump plays Texas hold ’em with Senate endorsement

Published

52 minutes ago

March 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

As the MAGA faithful gather for another day of CPAC in Grapevine, Texas, they are openly celebrating what they believe is tantamount to a major midterms victory: keeping President Donald Trump from endorsing John Cornyn ahead of May’s GOP Senate primary runoff.

MAGA world is taking a victory lap — and fresh comfort — in the receipts: A lack of significant spending and polling so far by not only Cornyn’s campaign, but also the NRSC and One Nation, the Senate Leadership Fund-aligned nonprofit. It amounts to a pattern the MAGA cohort reads as Washington making peace with a matchup between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, their anointed candidate, and Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.

“The grassroots stood in the breach and said a resounding ‘NO’ to Cornyn,” Steve Bannon, who has framed Paxton’s bid for the nomination as a battle for MAGA’s soul, told Blue Light News. “Polling and spending indicates that the Republican DC establishment reluctantly concurs. This could be the victory that empowers MAGA through the midterms.”

Paxton, though, hasn’t rested his case. He traveled to Mar-a-Lago last Friday for a Palm Beach County GOP dinner, and was spotted speaking to Trump himself, according to three sources familiar.

Trump and Paxton were on the patio, one source added, with another saying the two discussed the runoff. “It was a positive meeting,” said yet another person. A Paxton spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting.

It’s the latest sign of a fierce and feverish effort to keep Trump from endorsing Cornyn.

Even when all signs pointed to a Cornyn endorsement following the longtime senator’s showing in the primary, MAGA faithful kept pressing for Paxton. Now they’re optimistic their guy can come out on top — and they’re still taking shots at Cornyn every chance they get.

“The Cornyn endorsement looks dead, but it’s Trump, so it’s never certain,” a person close to the White House said. “Cornyn sealed his fate by carrying Mitch [McConnell]’s water on that ridiculous gun grabbing bill. No one thought he would be dumb enough to run for reelection after that but here we are.”

Now, Trump may not give an endorsement at all. Or if he does, he may endorse Paxton after the SAVE Act debate in the Senate is over, three sources tell Blue Light News.

“Nothing is dead,” said a source familiar with the president’s thinking. “It’s all just stasis at the moment.”

“It’s looking like he may not endorse at all,” another White House official said. “But it doesn’t seem like he has made up his mind.”

But the endorsement equation in Texas amid the SAVE Act saga is still very much vexing Trump, according to five Republicans in and around the White House. The president, who will not be in attendance at this year’s CPAC, is “being patient” and “trying to exact” a policy win, another person said.

“Trump isn’t going to endorse against Cornyn while the Save America Act is still being debated,” one White House ally said. “So for now I think he stays out, but if Thune files cloture and Paxton continues to lead in every poll then I could see him endorsing Paxton. No question Paxton wins if Trump stays out though.”

Every Republican who spoke to Blue Light News cautioned that Trump could change his mind at any moment. It’s still early for the runoff, they said, with Election Day still nearly two months away. But the deadline for a candidate to drop off the ballot passed last week.

One person familiar told Blue Light News that the Senate Leadership Fund and NRSC aren’t spending in order to conserve resources. “Not cause they are throwing in the towel,” this person said.

The campaign will be spending soon, a Cornyn spokesperson said. “Ken Paxton said he needed $20M to win this primary and he’s barely raised a quarter of that,” said Cornyn campaign senior adviser Matt Mackowiak. “His professional failures and indefensible personal conduct make GOP donors and Texas primary voters deeply uncomfortable.” He added: “We have a plan to win this race and we are executing it. Ken Paxton is busy whining and hiding.”

Chris LaCivita, one of Trump’s top campaign hands who works as a senior adviser for the pro-Cornyn super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority, said the runoff boils down to a resource equation. “The question remains the same,” LaCivita said. “Does the GOP want to spend $150-200 million holding what should be a safe seat and giving up other opportunities to gain advantage?”

Joanna Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the NRSC, said it’s “been very clear that the fight to protect President Trump’s Senate Majority should not be fought in Texas, and John Cornyn is the only candidate who ensures that does not happen.”

When it comes to money, Republicans are planning for MAGA Inc. to be “responsible for resources needed in a general election if it’s Ken Paxton,” according to two GOP operatives briefed on strategy (one cautioned that “planning is probably more hoping.”). A MAGA Inc. spokesperson declined to comment.

On the sidelines of CPAC, where bedazzled and sequined conservatives gathered for the base’s annual pep rally, the overwhelming feeling was that most Texas GOP primary voters had already made up their minds — and a Trump endorsement in either direction wouldn’t make much of a difference. Some attendees said they viewed Trump’s silence as a nudge toward Paxton.

“Texans — we’re done,” said Gregorio Heise, a Paxton supporter and Republican running for Congress in Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s Dallas district. “It’s already showing, even in the polling. Cornyn doesn’t do what Texans want, and [Paxton] does.”

On Friday night at CPAC, attendees will hear from Paxton, who’s headlining the conference’s Ronald Reagan dinner. Cornyn isn’t planning to attend.

“It’s an opportunity to be able to, you know, share your vision and basically sell yourself to the crowd, to the Texas crowd,” CPAC host and organizer Mercedes Schlapp told Blue Light News. “So Ken Paxton agreed to come, and he has a very high CPAC rating. And you know, we’ve invited Cornyn, and so we are still open. The invitation is still open for John Cornyn to come.”

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s Playbook newsletter.