I think it’s obvious that we should all remain skeptical of Lev Parnas as Tom counsels here. Shady operators often have good reasons for lying or embellishing when they are in the crosshairs.
The main takeaway from all this so far is that the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was engaged in a sleazy operation in Ukraine that appears to be linked to a lot more shady activities in this Ukraine gambit than we knew. It’s not credible that the president wasn’t okaying it ever step of the way. If they ever arrest Rudy and he has to save himself a lot of people will undoubtedly be in big trouble. That’s what Rudy was talking about when he said he has “insurance.” If Bill Barr was involved in all this, it may explain why Rudy has so far not been indicted by SDNY.
Maybe.The good news is that there are documents that can corroborate much of what Parnas said. They are still being looked at.
Yesterday, one watchdog group took a quick look at a few and shared what they found on twitter:
American Oversight@weareoversight
We lined up the newly released Parnas messages with the records we obtained from the State Department through FOIA litigation, as well as other records and reports. The timeline is troubling.
On Tuesday, the House released new evidence provided by Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, which included disturbing text messages that suggest the movements of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch were being tracked. intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/
…Many of the messages between Parnas and Robert Hyde, a Trump donor who was apparently assisting Parnas in Ukraine, were sent in late March 2019 — dates when Giuliani was in touch with Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, according to records we obtained. americanoversight.org/state-departme…
March 24: Donald Trump Jr tweets about Yovanovitch at 12:12pm EDT twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr… About 20 minutes later, at 4:34pm UTC, Parnas sends Hyde the same article that Don Jr tweeted.
March 25: Lev Parnas posts on Instagram from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, where he is with Giuliani for dinner celebrating the release of the Mueller report summary. twitter.com/shelbyholliday…
March 25: At that same time, Hyde is messaging Parnas (just after 2:00am the next day Ukraine time, according to the time stamps) suggesting he has Ambassador Yovanovitch under surveillance: “She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off.”
March 26: A little over 12 hours later, call logs obtained by American Oversight show Rudy Giuliani spoke with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
Also on March 26: John Solomon emailed Lev Parnas, Victoria Toensing, and Joseph diGenova an article advancing a Soros-related conspiracy theory about the 2016 election. documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
March 26: That evening, Giuliani appeared on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show. It was just after midnight in Ukraine when Hyde messaged Parnas: “If you want her out, they need to make contact with security forces…. From Ukrainians.”
The subsequent exchange between Parnas and Hyde suggests that Parnas was with Giuliani during the Ingraham broadcast. archive.org/details/FOXNEW…
March 27: At 11:28am EDT, Giuliani’s assistant contacts President Trump’s Oval Office secretary, Madeleine Westerhout, asking for help getting in touch with Secretary Pompeo. “I’ve been trying and getting nowhere through regular channels” documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
Later that night, Hyde messages Parnas about Yovanovitch again: “Nothing has changed she is still not moving.” “It’s confirmed we have a person inside.”
March 28: The next morning before 9:30am EDT, Giuliani called the State Department to set up a call with Mike Pompeo. According to emails we obtained, the call was scheduled for the next day. documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
According to news reports, March 28 is also the day that Giuliani delivered the the “packet” he had compiled about Yovanovitch — including the email that John Solomon had sent to Parnas two days earlier. nbcnews.com/politics/trump…;
March 29: At 3:00am Ukraine time, Hyde again messages Parnas: “She had visitors” and “It’s confirmed we have a person inside”
Just under 12 hours later, at 8:14am EDT, State Department call logs show that Giuliani spoke on the phone with Mike Pompeo for several minutes. documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
This gets even more concerning when you add in the records and reports showing contacts with Rep. Devin Nunes regarding investigations of the Bidens. According to CNBC, Nunes’ staff were in contact with Parnas and Ukrainian officials in “late March.” cnbc.com/2019/11/24/giu…
And Pompeo’s call schedule, which we obtained through our FOIA lawsuit, shows a call with Nunes scheduled for April 1 — listed on the log immediately after the March 29 call with Giuliani. documentcloud.org/documents/6557…
All of this calls into question Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s knowledge of the events unfolding in Kyiv surrounding the U.S. ambassador and her eventual ouster.
In June, one of Pompeo’s assistant secretaries would write to top House leaders providing a misleading account of Yovanovitch’s removal: foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/25/tru…
And State Department letters released to American Oversight just this month show Undersecretary Brian Bulatao writing to Yovanovitch’s attorney to instruct the former ambassador not to testify to Congress or provide documents. documentcloud.org/documents/6603…
This is why we’re working so hard to extract the paper trail of the Trump administration’s Ukraine dealings. We have six active lawsuits seeking documents, and more files are scheduled to be released in the coming weeks. Follow our investigation here: americanoversight.org/investigation/…
That was posted before Parnas’ interview in which he indicated that Hyde was just a drunken clown, so who knows? But a timeline is the sort of thing that can draw in the other players and corroborate what he said.
There isn’t a lot of time to get that done but I’m sure the lawyers on the House side are pulling all-nighters to see what they have. It’s not going to be easy because the Parnas evidence is voluminous.
And yes, it would have been nice to have all this stuff earlier but the fact is that the SDNY and a federal judge didn’t release these documents until this week. The media doesn’t seem to know that and neither does Susan Collins. Someone needs to tell them.
Published with permission of Digby's Hullabaloo, now located at digbysblog.net
