JTA — Lev Parnas, the Soviet-born Jewish former associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a central figure in US President Donald Trump’s first impeachment investigation, has announced his bid for Congress in Miami.

He will be running as a Democrat in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, joining an already crowded race of Democrats seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Cuban American who is in her third congressional term.

“I’ve spent years speaking out, exposing corruption, and warning about the dangers facing our democracy. Now it’s time to take that fight directly where it belongs — to Congress,” Parnas wrote in a post on X announcing his entry into the race.

Parnas, a Jewish Ukrainian-American businessman, rose to national prominence during the impeachment proceedings against Trump in 2019, when he turned on the president after helping him and Giuliani try to find damaging information in Ukraine about former US President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. (The Senate acquitted Trump the following year.)

Parnas and his business partner, Igor Fruman, also cultivated ties with several Jewish figures and organizations, including the prominent Ukrainian rabbi Moshe Azman, who met with Giuliani in 2019. Parnas and Fruman met with Trump during the White House Hanukkah party in 2018.

“I’m running for Congress because we must stand up to Donald Trump and his lackeys like Maria Salazar,” Parnas’ campaign website reads. “I’ve seen........

© The Times of Israel