Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, were identified by a slew of State Department and White House witnesses as Giuliani’s allies in an effort to smear and sideline Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine whom they viewed as an impediment to the effort to get Ukraine to investigate Trump’s opponents. They helped connect Giuliani with high-level Ukrainian officials and acted at times as translators and go-betweens. The House’s impeachment report also found that Parnas was in touch with some lawmakers throughout the effort.
Parnas and Fruman were arrested in October as part of a complex campaign finance scheme. But the indictment and subsequent revelations about their actions have revealed them as a ubiquitous presence in Trump’s orbit, even working with Giuliani on aspects of Trump’s defense against special counsel Robert Mueller.
The new stream of evidence underscores the precarious position lawmakers find themselves in on the precipice of the Senate trial. Just a day earlier, new documents obtained by online national security publication Just Security provided fresh evidence about Trump’s decision to withhold military aide from Ukraine — and the turmoil it provoked inside the administration — underscoring that significant evidence continues to emerge despite the rapidly unfolding impeachment process.
Parnas’ attorney, Joseph Bondy, has indicated to the court that he intends to review the materials and decide whether to provide all of it, or just a subset, to the House. He noted that prosecutors had no objection to sharing the information with the House, so long as the judge approved.
Source: politico.com
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