REVIEW: "FROM RUSSIA WITH LEV"

I watched this documentary last night. If you missed it, you should watch the re-broadcast tonight or tomorrow night on MSNBC.

This review comes from Politicus USA:

Rachel Maddow’s documentary film, "From Russia with Lev," is an examination of Lev Parnas' journey on the path to redemption.

There were bombshells, like Fox News being implicated in the scheme to bring down Hunter Biden to get President Joe Biden. Lev Parnas added later on Velshi that Russia stole Hunters laptop, with help from Devon Archer and the allegation that Trump’s handpicked Attorney General Bill Barr tried to hide it all. And OH YEAH, Lev Parnas told Velshi he has documentation, thanks to his wife’s insistence.

And there was an acceptance of what seemed to be a genuine apology by Lev to Hunter.

It’s reasonable to question Parnas given his past, but Maddow laid out on Velshi the consideration she gave to that question, weighing in his favor 1. He did an interview with her after he was indicted, “at great legal peril to himself” when it was against in his own interest to do so. 2. He has a record of all of the things he’s talking about, thousands of photos and documents in his iCloud and phone, and he gave Maddow and her producer Billy Corben access to all of it. She also cited his “genuine repentance.”

LEV PARNAS: “I want you to know I wrote this book to tell the truth about what happened during the Trump administration. He used your battle with addiction for his own agenda to hurt you and your family and your father. You are a casualty in all of this. I regret very truly my decision to work with those that try to bring you and your family down. I will do everything in my power to clear your name going forward.”

HUNTER BIDEN: Thank you, my friend. You know I'll treasure this. And one thing I've learned is that truth and love always prevail. May take a little while, but the fact of the matter is, we get up every day and we do the next right thing, we win. We get a second chance.

Parnas told Biden that Giuliani put pressure on his contacts at the FBI and DOJ to investigate Hunter, and that the Trump FBI secretly subpoenaed Hunter’s bank records and then handed them to John Solomon (who was at Fox News until some point in 2020) who then recirculated them back to the DOJ and Fox.

HUNTER: When did it cross over from being a harebrained Rudy Giuliani operation in concert with Trump to the DOJ. When did Trump's lackeys inside the DOJ begin to also conspire to take you?

LEV: I mean, basically from the very beginning, from that first initial meeting with Trump, and right after that, Giuliani started calling all his contacts at the DOJ and FBI to start putting pressure to look into you, to look into your dad and all your Ukraine dealings.

You have to say, Hunter, at that time, I truly believe there was a deep state. I truly believe that you were up to some shit. But there's never any criminality and anything that's the whole thing. There were just basically, you know, innuendos, conspiracy theories, but no actual facts.

The crazy part, I mean, I feel embarrassed. I mean, I got your bank records —

HUNTER: How does he get my bank records? My bank records aren't even on a computer.

LEV: I got an email from John Solomon that said that his friends at the FBI got your records are nowhere.

HUNTER: So the FBI secretly subpoenaed and got my bank records under the Trump administration, handed him to John Solomon, recirculates them back into the DOJ.

LEV: John Solomon came on Hannity, and Fox had a whole system going.

HUNTER: So Fox was definitely directly involved?

LEV: Oh, 100%.

Parnas expressed remorse for his role in a campaign finance scheme and his betrayal of Ukraine and America, which led to his arrest and imprisonment. He spoke about the harm caused to his family and others, including Maria Yovanovitch, and regrets his part in promoting division in America and amplifying Russian interests.

LEV: I was as close as you could get to him (Trump). I did all his dirty work. And Donald Trump doesn't care about anybody except for himself. He doesn't care about the Constitution. He doesn't care about the United States, because Donald Trump doesn't want to be president.

He wants to be a dictator. He wants to be Vladimir Putin president for life, I hope one day, not only will the country Forgive me, Ukraine will forgive me. I hope one day Hunter Biden could really forgive me. I feel a lot of responsibility because of our actions in Ukraine pushing all of this disinformation against Hunter Biden has now caused real problems, real criminal problems that he is now facing.

LEV: I feel foolish, I feel disgusted, I feel I'm ashamed of myself. I truly believe we were helping America, but looking back at now, we've destroyed America. We have such division. People are at each other's throats. And the sad part that was exactly what Vladimir Putin wanted, and we gave it to him on a silver platter.

It wasn’t just Fox being potentially exposed. It didn’t go well for one writer at New York Times, either. “The Lev Parnas discussion of Ken Vogel requires the NY Times to do its own deep dive into his past reporting. Including his relationship with Rudy Guiliani,” Norm Ornstein noted.

The level of corruption Donald Trump has imposed upon this country and traitorous siding with countries hostile to western democracy and the U.S. would have been unthinkable ten years ago. Trump has put all of our institutions to the test, and most have failed.

On the other hand, the humanity of certain people in Trump’s orbit who had the mettle to stand up against him at great risk to themselves has been consistent enough to deserve recognition. These are the people who, for whatever reason (from self-preservation to true dismay over the harm caused to others), chose to speak up.

Parnas is yet another person used and thrown away by Donald Trump. Somehow, he found the courage to come forward, even when doing so put himself in peril.

The revelations of this film suggest broader implications for American democracy and national security when a crook like Donald Trump is given the keys to the White House.

But it also offers us a healing redemption arc.

As Hunter Biden gives Lev Parnas a hug, we can see his character in graciously accepting this apology. None of these people are perfect, not Joe Biden or his son Hunter or Parnas. We are all flawed.

Hunter gave Parnas the redemption he hoped for, while Parnas gave Hunter information he needed to defend himself and his family against the ongoing politically-motivated Republican attacks.

And we, the audience, got to see a person who inflicted a lot of damage on our country, on behalf of Donald Trump and Russia, apologize. We got to see the President’s son uplifted by truth after years of relentless attacks. We got to see the humanity in both of these people and be reminded that we are truly in this together. Letting Trump divide us helps no one but Trump and Putin.

There is grace to be found here, and from grace we can move on to the joy that hopefully awaits us.

From Russia With Lev will play again today (Saturday) at 8pm ET and Sunday 9pm ET on MSNBC.

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