Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani charged with campaign finance violations, is doing a get-out-of-jail media tour ahead of the Senate impeachment trial with his first stop on Rachel Maddow’s show. At least they’re honest about his motivation here:
WATCH: @maddow tells @Lawrence she feels Parnas is coming forward because "he's worried" about going to jail and he wants to make it clear "that he wants to cooperate, he wants to testify with congressional investigators in the impeachment investigation." https://t.co/CKamsWtzqF
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 16, 2020
And here are 5 takeaways from the interview, summarized from this article on TheHill.com:
1. Parnas claimed that the president threatened to withhold all aid from Ukraine if it did not publicly announce an investigation into the Bidens, and he delivered that "very harsh message" to Ukrainian officials on behalf of Giuliani and Trump.
— Mitch Kosterman (@MitchKosterman) January 16, 2020
2. Giuliani's associate continued by connecting Attorney General Bill Barr to the pressure campaign, saying that Giuliani had contacted the attorney general about the attempts to get Ukraine to announce a Biden investigation
— Mitch Kosterman (@MitchKosterman) January 16, 2020
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3. Parnas also directly connected Trump to the Ukraine pressure campaign to investigate the Bidens, saying the president "knew exactly what was going on."
— Mitch Kosterman (@MitchKosterman) January 16, 2020
4. Parnas accused Vice President Mike Pence of being in the know, adding that the vice president's planned trip to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy's inauguration was canceled because the country refused to announce a Biden investigation
— Mitch Kosterman (@MitchKosterman) January 16, 2020
5. … it was never about corruption," Parnas said. "It was never – it was strictly about Burisma, which included Hunter Biden and Joe Biden."
— Mitch Kosterman (@MitchKosterman) January 16, 2020
Parans also said Devin Nunes was involved in all this:
"I can't believe this was happening," Lev Parnas tells @maddow he recalls thinking while watching Rep. Nunes being involved in defending the president during the House impeachment hearings. "They were involved in getting all this stuff about Biden." https://t.co/0GyoNcHKYu
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 16, 2020
Nunes has now acknowledged talking to Parnas over the phone:
.@DevinNunes "acknowledged Wednesday night that he had in fact spoken with Lev Parnas over the phone as part of a conversation he previously could not recall." https://t.co/eOdeRwj9Qu
— David Leopold (@DavidLeopold) January 16, 2020
Parans also spoke with the NYT:
Parnas also spoke with the @nytimes about the #Ukraine scandal: “I thought I was being a patriot and helping the president… [I] thought by listening to the president and his attorney that I couldn’t possibly get in trouble….” https://t.co/7PxnOSWAjP pic.twitter.com/c1loP8Dhry
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) January 16, 2020
And CNN:
Lev Parnas described two occasions on which he delivered messages to Ukrainians that amounted to quid pro quos, demanding the announcement of an investigation into the Bidens in exchange for benefits from the White House.https://t.co/qLwZHVZuBB pic.twitter.com/7qAxOHiWeB
— New Day (@NewDay) January 16, 2020
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