Lev Parnas’s dramatic new claims about Trump and Ukraine, defined

Former Rudy Giuliani fixer Lev Parnas made a collection of dramatic new claims Wednesday about President Donald Trump, Trump administration officers, and the general effort to strain Ukraine that led to Trump’s impeachment. And now, the query is whether or not he can again them up.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Parnas claimed that President Trump knew “precisely what was happening” along with his and Giuliani’s effort to get the Ukrainian authorities to announce investigations that will assist Trump politically: “He was conscious of all my actions.”

Parnas additionally made assertions about what occurred throughout numerous moments within the scandal. As an example, he stated he conveyed a “harsh” message to an aide to Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelensky throughout a gathering, threatening payback if no Biden investigation materialized. When he obtained no response, Parnas stated, Trump canceled Vice President Mike Pence’s journey to Zelensky’s inauguration.

He additionally stated that numerous Trump administration officers, from Pence to Lawyer Normal Invoice Barr, had been in on the plot — although these assertions particularly haven’t been corroborated.

About the one one that was out of the loop, in keeping with Parnas, was Robert F. Hyde, the Republican congressional candidate who was thrust into the information Tuesday, when texts he’d sent to Parnas that he was having Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch surveilled had been made public. Parnas stated, although, that Hyde was a “bizarre” character who was in all probability making every part up.

Parnas was indicted for marketing campaign finance violations in October, and his authorized jeopardy seems to have motivated this break with Trump’s crew. Parnas obtained permission from the decide in his case to show over documents prosecutors obtained to Home impeachment investigators, and now he’s gone public. His motivations for doing all this are a bit murky, however he appears to be angling for both a cooperation settlement with prosecutors or a grant of congressional immunity (neither of that are notably probably).

So since Parnas has a historical past of being a slippery character, it’s in all probability greatest to deal with his claims as unverified — till they’re corroborated, for instance with his documents. However right here’s a rundown of what he’s saying now and what it means for the bigger narrative of the Trump-Ukraine scandal. None of it’s nice for Trump’s claims that Giuliani was appearing on his personal — once more, if Parnas is on the extent.

Parnas’s bigger message was that Trump knew every part

The largest level Parnas saved making in his interview with Maddow was a broad one — that Trump “knew precisely what was happening.” Requested what was “the primary inaccuracy or essential lie” Trump’s crew is telling in regards to the scandal, right here was Parnas’s response:

PARNAS: That the president didn’t know what was happening. President Trump knew precisely what was happening. He was conscious of all my actions. He — I wouldn’t do something with out the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president.

Maddow adopted up by citing Trump’s assertion that he didn’t know Parnas or Parnas’s colleague Igor Fruman. “He lied,” Parnas stated. He elaborated:

PARNAS: I imply, we’re not buddies. I imply, once you say buddies, I imply, me and him didn’t watch soccer video games collectively, we didn’t eat hotdogs. However he knew precisely who we had been. He knew precisely who I used to be particularly as a result of I interacted with him at a whole lot of occasions. I had a whole lot of one-on-one conversations with him at gatherings. Or they’ve particular, like, these roundtables, the place there are solely six folks on the desk. We’ve got a number of of these.

And mainly, I imply, I used to be with Rudy greater than — I imply, 4 or 5 days out of the week. I imply, I used to be in fixed contact with him. So — and I used to be with Rudy when he would communicate to the president, loads of occasions. I imply, so it’s simply ludicrous.

So Parnas clearly isn’t saying he had an in depth relationship with Trump — however, he says, they noticed one another at many occasions, together with in small-group settings (Parnas and Fruman donated a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} to Republican candidates in 2018). Additionally, Parnas stated, he was all the time round Rudy Giuliani — together with when Giuliani was chatting with Trump.

Certainly, it actually appears believable based mostly on how Trump operates that the president was being recurrently up to date on, if not outright directing, Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine. So it is sensible that Trump would know that Giuliani had two associates who would open doorways for him and prepare conferences in Ukraine: Parnas and Fruman.

Nonetheless, with Trump’s communications with Giuliani occurring both over the cellphone or in individual, and subsequently not leaving a document, it’s harder to show what precisely he knew or was directing.

Parnas gave (alleged) new particulars about facets of the strain marketing campaign

There have been, nonetheless, some facets of the saga about which Parnas obtained extra particular.

1) Pence’s canceled journey to Kyiv: We’ve recognized for a while that, on May 12, Parnas and his colleague Igor Fruman visited Kyiv and had a gathering with an adviser to Zelensky, Serhiy Shefir.

Then, the next day, on Could 13, the White Home contacted Pence’s workplace to say that President Trump had determined Pence wouldn’t be attending Zelensky’s inauguration. That’s in keeping with the testimony of Pence aide Jennifer Williams (although Pence’s chief of employees has claimed that the journey was canceled as a result of the inauguration’s date wasn’t but closing).

Now, Parnas supplied new data that — if true — would flesh out what occurred right here.

After Giuliani met with Trump, Parnas stated, Giuliani instructed him to provide Shefir a message “in a really harsh manner.” The message was that if Zelensky didn’t adjust to investigating the Bidens, then “all support” to Ukraine would cease, the US-Ukraine relationship would “bitter,” and “no one would present as much as Zelensky’s inauguration.”

Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs

So, Parnas says, he met with Shefir and delivered that message. However Shefir went radio silent afterward, and stopped responding to Parnas’s messages. So, Parnas says, he referred to as Giuliani again “and stated ‘No go’, and I keep in mind Rudy going, ‘Okay, they’ll see.’”

So that is an alleged rationalization for why Pence’s journey obtained cancelled. Zelensky’s aide didn’t conform to the quid professional quo, Parnas advised Giuliani, Giuliani advised Trump — in order that was the tip for Pence’s journey to the inauguration. (A much less spectacular delegation of US officers led by Secretary of Power Rick Perry ended up attending.)

2) Trump’s canceled journey to Poland: The background is that, in late August — after information had damaged that Trump was blocking a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} in army support to Ukraine — Trump cancelled a deliberate journey to Poland, the place he was supposed to fulfill President Zelensky. Trump claimed he canceled the journey to watch Hurricane Dorian.

Vice President Pence and different officers went as a substitute, and Pence met Zelensky. Ambassador Gordon Sondland has testified that in this journey, he advised a Zelensky adviser that the help trusted an announcement of investigations (although he claims he merely assumed this was the case, and that nobody greater up in Trump’s administration had advised him so).

Now, Parnas is claiming that Trump used the hurricane as an “excuse” to cancel the journey, and that the true cause was that he was “offended” that Zelensky wouldn’t comply. (Requested how he knew this, Parnas stated, “I spoke to Rudy.”)

Parnas additionally claims that Pence was instructed “to debate this” — to debate the investigations with Zelensky— “on Trump’s behalf.” He doesn’t actually clarify how he is aware of this, however says that Nationwide Safety Adviser John Bolton would know what occurred.

3) A cope with Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash: For months now, one murky query about this scandal associated to the function of Dmitry Firtash — a Ukrainian oligarch who was indicted by the US in 2014, and has been caught in Austria and attempting to cease his extradition to the US ever since.

As a part of Giuliani’s seek for Biden dust — and for a profitable Ukrainian consumer — he met with Firtash’s representatives in Could and June of final yr, the Washington Post reports.

Ultimately, two conservative attorneys working with Giuliani and Parnas — Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova — landed a contract, by which they had been paid about $1 million for 4 months of labor for Firtash. Parnas himself was paid massive sums by Firtash associates as a part of that association, too. Toensing and diGenova landed a gathering with Lawyer Normal William Barr on the Justice Division the place they pleaded Firtash’s case, apparently with out success.

In the meantime, Firtash’s attorneys obtained a former Ukrainian official — Viktor Shokin — to issue an affidavit, making claims that Vice President Joe Biden was corrupt.

Parnas now says this was no coincidence. The deal was that Firtash would assist present data on the Bidens and different data Trump may discover helpful politically, and in change, Giuliani’s associates would attempt to get his expenses dropped.

“It was all linked. I imply, it was all — on the finish of the day, it was all — the agenda was to be sure that the Ukrainians introduced the Biden investigation,” Parnas stated.

Certainly, handwritten notes by Parnas contained within the Home’s doc launch appear to verify this. Written on a notepad for the Ritz-Carlton Vienna (the resort the place Firtash reportedly lives), Parnas’s notes freely intermingle references to getting Biden investigated and Firtash’s authorized scenario. We nonetheless don’t know the complete story of what went on right here, nevertheless it seems ugly.

Parnas claimed Mike Pence and Invoice Barr had been a part of the scheme — however he…