By Luc Cohen

(Reuters) – Opening arguments will begin Wednesday at the Lev Parnas trial. He is a former associate of Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and faces a charge for violating campaign finance law.

Prosecutors have said that Parnas concealed an illegal $325,000 donation to Trump’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential re-election bid.

Parnas (Ukraine-born) and Andrey Kukushkin, his co-defendant are also accused of illegally using U.S. politicians’ donations from Russian businessmen to obtain recreational marijuana distribution licences.

Parnas and Kukushkin have not pleaded guilty.

New York’s Manhattan federal judge J. Paul Oetkin is overseeing the case. Parnas, a supporter of Trump’s lies that he lost the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud, was at the forefront of the attention.

This trial may shed some light on campaign finance operations behind-the scenes during Trump’s bid for reelection.

On Tuesday, jurors were chosen from a pool of ten men and five ladies. Three of them will also serve as alternates.

The case will be heard by one juror, who claimed that his brother was a Trump Organization real estate lawyer.

Giuliani hired Parnas as well as another associate Igor Fruman in Ukraine to search for information about Biden’s son Hunter. Fruman pleaded guilty last month to soliciting money for a foreign national.

Separate from the federal investigation into Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine and whether Giuliani violated lobbying laws as Trump’s attorney, Parnas is a separate case.

Giuliani is not being charged. He has also denied any wrongdoing. He has denied wrongdoing and said that Parnas’ case is unrelated to the probe into lobbying.