These are Giuliani associate Lev Parnas' most explosive claims in his wild interview with Rachel Maddow

Lauren FriasJan 16, 2020, 13:18 IST

In an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Lev Parnas revealed new details of President Donald Trump's pressure campaign against Ukraine.
Parnas, an associated of Rudy Giuliani, named people who he says knew about the campaign, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr, and US Rep. Devin Nunes.
His statements suggest a far wider operation than previously thought.
Parnas spoke to Maddow the day after the House Intelligence Committee released documents detailing his central role in Trump's pressure campaign.
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In an explosive interview aired Wednesday, Lev Parnas, an associated of Rudy Giuliani, personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, made a series of significant claims about Trump's pressure campaign in Ukraine.

Parnas spoke with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on her show, the day after the House Intelligence Committee released a slew of documents containing text messages and handwritten notes detailing the role played by Parnas in Ukraine.

His actions are part of a broader push by Trump to pressure Ukraine's government into publicly investigating alleged corruption by Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden. The campaign led to Trump's impeachment.

Here are the highlights from Parnas' interview:

He apologized to former Marie Yovanovitch for the smear campaign that led to her being kicked out.

Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, testified in Trump's impeachment inquiry in November, describing how she was abruptly recalled from her position after a smear campaign.

The House Intelligence Committee documents included text message conversations between Parnas and his associates discussing plans for the surveillance of Yovanovitch. He told Maddow "the only motivation" to oust the former ambassador that she was "in the way" of the pressure campaign.

Parnas exchanged text messages with Robert Hyde, a Republican running for Congress in Connecticut, who repeatedly called Yovanovitch a "b---h."

Hyde issued a statement following the release of the text messages, texting NBC News reporter Josh Lederman the following: "How low can liddle [sic] Adam Bull Schiff go. To take some texts my buddy's and I wrote while we had a few drinks to some dweeb I met a few times.... Bull Schiff is a desperate turd."

Parnas told Maddow that Hyde was "drunk all the time."

Parnas apologized to Yovanovitch during the interview for the smear campaign that led to her losing her post in Ukraine.

He said you can clearly overhear Trump's phone calls with other people

Parnas in his interview pointedly observed that the president can be heard on the other end of the line when he is talking to someone else on the phone, drawing on his own experience.

While it may seem trivial, the detail corroborates testimony by State Department aide David Holmes in which he said he overheard a July 26 phone call between Trump and Gordon Sondland, the US Ambassador to the European Union.

George Conway, husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and critic of the president, then weighed in to confirm the detail, saying "often you can hear him clear as a bell."

He said Mike Pence cancelled a trip to Kyiv in apparent retaliation for Ukraine not investigating the Bidens

Parnas claimed that Vice President Mike Pence was also "in the loop" on the Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine.

Pence was originally set to go to Kyiv, Ukraine, to attend the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but cancelled the trip, Parnas said.

He said he was "100% sure" that Trump asked Pence to cancel his trip after Ukraine didn't announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma until last April.

"That was the key to where we are today, because after that, take a look at what transpires," Parnas continued.

"Within the next couple of days, all of a sudden they realize now - they get word because obviously when Pence cancels, they get word that Pence is not coming. So now they realize that what I was telling them was true."

He said Rep. Devin Nunes 'wanted to help'

Parnas said he met with Rep. Devin Nunes "several times" in relation to the pressure campaign against Ukraine. Parnas said Nunes was "was aware" of the campaign and "had a lot of information."

"I was in shock when I was watching the [impeachment] hearings, and when I saw Devin Nunes sitting up there ... I texted my attorney and said, 'I can't this is happening because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden,'" Parnas told Maddow.

"It's hard to see them lie like that when you know that it's like that," he continued. "It's scary that he was sitting there and making all these statements and all that when he knew very well what was going on."

Nunes told Fox News host Sean Hannity in December that he didn't recall ever hearing Parnas' name before, despite call logs showing he had called Parnas and Giuliani three or four times during the release of the Mueller report.

"He knew what was happening," Parnas said. "He knows who I am."

He said Attorney General William Barr 'was basically on the team'

Parnas said Barr "had to have known everything" about the investigation into the Bidens. Although he said he had never spoken to the attorney general, he said he was privy to conversations between Barr and Giuliani.

"Attorney General Barr was basically on the team," he told Maddow.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department told Maddow in a statement that Parnas' claim about Barr's role is "100% false."

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