AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., left, talks to Steve Castor, Republican staff attorney for the House Oversight Committee,
- House Democrats released a tranche of previously undisclosed text messages on Friday night between an associate of Rudy Giuliani's and an aide to the top-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
- The records show that Parnas, who Rudy Giuliani used to communicate with Ukrainian officials, texted with Rep. Devin Nunes' aide, Derek Harvey, extensively throughout 2019.
- The messages provide key new evidence that Nunes' team was aware of and involved in Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden.
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House Democrats released a tranche of previously undisclosed text messages on Friday night between Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump's personal attorney, and an aide to the top-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
The records show that Parnas, who Rudy Giuliani used to communicate with Ukrainian officials, texted with Rep. Devin Nunes' aide, Derek Harvey, extensively throughout 2019. And the messages provide key new evidence that Nunes' team was aware of and involved in Trump's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden.
The texts show Parnas arranged calls between Harvey and Ukranian prosecutors who were giving Giuliani information about Biden. They also show that Harvey met with Parnas and Giuliani at the Trump International Hotel in Washington in May 2019.
"Also do you want to interview the general prosecutor who got [ditched] by Biden? Also the anti corruption prosecutor? Let me know," Parnas texted Harvey on April 19, 2019.
"Does tomorrow work?" Harvey replied.
The messages back up Parnas' claims that he set up meetings between various Ukranian prosecutors and Harvey and that Nunes was deeply involved in gathering damaging information about Biden from Ukranian sources.
"Derek Harvey had several interviews, Skype interviews I set up, with different prosecutors like [Nazar] Kholodnytsky, which is the anti-corruption prosecutor of Ukraine [and] Konstantyn Kulyk, one of the major guys that's had this whole Biden stuff," Parnas told MSNBC in an interview on Wednesday.
In December, House Democrats released records showing calls between Nunes and Parnas, but Nunes said then that he couldn't remember ever speaking with Parnas.
But on Thursday, the Republican lawmaker conceded that he remembered one call with Parnas.
"I checked it with my records and it was very clear - I remember that call, which was very odd, random, talking about random things, and I said, 'great,' you know, 'talk to my staff,' and boom, boom, boom. That's just normal operating procedure," Nunes told Fox News.
Parnas was indicted in October on federal campaign finance charges and has recently turned against both Giuliani and Trump.
Read more:
- Text messages show a Giuliani associate discussing how to stalk 'that b----' Marie Yovanovitch in Ukraine in a bid to get her fired
- Explosive new documents involving Rudy Giuliani and a Ukrainian associate show the shocking extent of Trump's pressure campaign
- A handwritten note on Ritz-Carlton paper shows Giuliani associate Lev Parnas spelling out his top goal for Ukraine's president: Announce a criminal probe into Joe Biden