Wow. Parnas says Giuliani told him to deliver a tough message to Zelensky aide that “it wasn’t just military aid, it was all aid” from US that depended on Ukraine announcing the Biden investigation Trump wanted.
Parnas goes on to say that Trump made Pence cancel his trip to Kyiv for Zelensky’s inauguration to show Ukraine his seriousness about demanding the investigations.
.@maddow asks if Pence was aware of everything...
Parnas points out that Pence went to Poland to talk with Zelensky on Sept. 1:
“He couldn’t have not known.”
Parnas points out that Pence went to Poland to talk with Zelensky on Sept. 1:
“He couldn’t have not known.”
.@maddow: “You believe Pence was tasked with getting Zelensky to announce those investigations?”
Parnas: “Yes.”
Parnas: “Yes.”
Parnas says Bolton has a lot of information and would be an important witness: “He knows what happened there.”
Parnas says pressuring Ukraine to open a Biden investigation “was the only motivation” for ousting Ambassador Yovanovitch, who’d tried to stymie those efforts.
Parnas says he didn’t take Hyde’s claim that he was doing surveillance on Yovanovitch because he was such a drunk, that his text responses (like “lol”) were just meant to placate him.
“The agenda was to make sure the Ukrainians announced the Biden investigation,” Parnas says, explaining how this endeavor was tied to efforts to prevent oligarch Dmitri Firtash from being extradited to the US.
Parnas: “Mr. Barr had to have known everything...AG Barr was basically on the team.”
Parnas apologizes to Yovanovitch, says he now believes she didn’t actually badmouth Trump in Ukraine but was being smeared by the people he was working with.
