1/15/20
A close associate of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer says he delivered an ultimatum in May to the incoming president of Ukraine that no senior U.S. officials would attend his inauguration and all American aid to the war-torn country would be withheld if an investigation into Joe Biden wasn't announced. He also said that Trump was aware of his efforts as part of the pressure campaign involving Ukraine. Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, made several potentially explosive claims in a televised interview Wednesday night with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. The day after Parnas said he delivered the message, the U.S. State Department announced that Vice President Mike Pence would no longer be attending the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Parnas alleged that Trump ordered Pence to stay away at the behest of Giuliani to send a clear message to the incoming Ukrainian administration that they needed to take seriously the demand for an investigation into Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate seen as a potential threat to Trump's 2020 reelection. Asked whether Pence knew of that "quid pro quo," Parnas referenced comments by Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, during a House impeachment inquiry hearing, that "everybody was in the loop." "He couldn't have not known," Parnas said.
Parnas said every communication he had with Zelensky's team was at the direction of Giuliani, whom he regularly overheard briefing Trump about their progress by phone. "President Trump knew exactly what was going on," said Parnas, a Soviet-born Florida businessman facing a raft of criminal charges related to campaign finance violations. "He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the President." If true, Parnas' account undercuts a key Republican defense of Trump deployed during the ongoing impeachment fight — that Trump's withholding of vital military aid to Ukraine last summer wasn't a quid pro quo for Biden investigations because Zelensky didn't know the money was being held up. Parnas said he also heard Giuliani and another Trump-aligned defense lawyer, Victoria Toensing, briefing Attorney General William Barr by phone about their efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to announce the investigation into Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings. "Mr. Barr had to have known everything. I mean, it's impossible,” Parnas said. "Attorney General Barr was basically on the team." A House committee chairman said Wednesday his panel will investigate what he says are "profoundly alarming" text messages among the newly disclosed materials that have raised questions about the possible surveillance of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before she was ousted by the Trump administration last spring. The messages show that a Robert F. Hyde, a GOP candidate for Congress from Connecticut, disparaged Yovanovitch in messages to Parnas and gave him updates on her location and cellphone use.