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 US 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.
made several potentially explosive claims in a televised interview on Wednesday night with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. The day after Mr Parnas said he delivered the message, the US State Department announced that Vice President Mike Pence would no longer be attending the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskiy.
Mr Parnas alleged Mr Trump ordered the vice president to stay away at the behest of Mr Giuliani to send a clear message to the incoming Ukrainian administration that they needed to take seriously the demand for an investigation into Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate seen as a potential threat to Trump's 2020 reelection.
Mr Parnas said every communication he had with Mr Zelenskiy's team was at the direction of Mr Giuliani, whom he regularly overheard briefing Trump about their progress by phone.
Rudy Giuliani and US President Donald Trump. Source: Getty Images
"President Trump knew exactly what was going on," said Mr 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, Mr Parnas' account undercuts a key Republican defence of the president deployed during the ongoing impeachment fight - that Mr Trump's withholding of vital military aid to Ukraine last summer wasn't a quid pro quo for the Biden investigations because Mr Zelenskiy didn't know the money was being held up.
Mr Giuliani called the statements "sad."
"I feel sorry for him," Mr Giuliani said Wednesday in a text message.
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has dismissed the claims. Source: Getty
"I thought he was an honourable man. I was wrong."
Asked directly if Mr Parnas was lying, Mr Trump's lawyer replied, "I'm not responding yet."
Mr Parnas said he also heard Mr Giuliani and another Trump-aligned defence lawyer, Victoria Toensing, briefing Attorney General William Barr by phone about their efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to announce the investigation into Mr Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings.
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Parnas' claims were "100 per cent false."
The new accusations came as House Democrats made public a trove of documents, text messages and photos from Mr Parnas' smartphones that appear to verify parts of his account.
Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas at the Trump International Hotel in Washington in September 2019. Source: Reuters
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 Trump donor named Robert F. Hyde disparaged Ms Yovanovitch in messages to Mr Parnas and gave him updates on her location and mobile phone use.
Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat representative who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the messages "suggest a possible risk" to Ms Yovanovitch's security in Kiev before she was recalled from her post.
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Source: AAP
"These threats occurred at the same time that the two men were also discussing President Trump's efforts, through Rudy Giuliani, to smear the ambassador's reputation," he said.
"This unprecedented threat to our diplomats must be thoroughly investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Democrats released the files on Tuesday and Wednesday as they prepared to
with wires...
