Thread by @LoopEmma

NEW: The Lev Parnas documents released this week paint a fuller picture of the behind-the-scenes campaign to get Amb. Yovanovitch removed than we've ever seen before. We've pieced it all together here to show how the effort unfolded:
buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

Hundreds of pages of texts and WhatsApp messages released by the House show the effort was more widespread within powerful Republican circles than previously known and raise questions about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s involvement as well.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

The first instance that we know of where Parnas & Fruman advocated against Yovanovitch was May 2018, when they criticized her to Rep. Pete Sessions. He then wrote a letter to Secretary Pompeo urging him to remove her, as @MikeSallah7 first reported. buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

@MikeSallah7 Parnas & Fruman’s donations to Sessions, and their efforts to have her fired at the behest of a Ukrainian government official, are detailed in the duo’s October indictment.

@MikeSallah7 The messages released this week suggest that Parnas & Giuliani were spending time with Sessions months later at a cigar lounge near the White House. Parnas spent $500+ there that night.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

@MikeSallah7 But the effort to remove Yovanovitch heated up months later in early 2019.

“Is there absolute commitment for HER to be gone this week?” Victoria Toensing texted Giuliani & Parnas in Feb.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

@MikeSallah7 “Yes not sure how absolute[.] Will get a reading in morning and call you,” Giuliani replied. “Pompeii [sic] is now aware of it. Talked to him on Friday.”

“Pompeii” is likely Pompeo, who is only known to have spoken with Giuliani as early as March.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

(Sidenote: the boomer texting energy is so strong in these messages)

A week later, texts between Toensing and Parnas alluded to the ambassador and a meeting with the “big guy.”

"Did he [Rudy] meet with the guy re Amb?" said Toensing, who refers to Yovanovitch as the “Wicket [sic] Witch” in a later text.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

"I am still waiting on that,” Parnas replied. “Meeting with big guy in 4 hours."

After Parnas said he had left the meeting, Toensing asked, "Was he successful re Amb?"

"[T]his week," Parnas wrote.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

The next month, Parnas was talking to Yuriy Lutsenko, then Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

“It’s just that if you don’t make a decision about Madam — you are bringing into question all my allegations. Including about B,” Lutsenko told Parnas.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

That’s also when Parnas was messaging with Robert Hyde, who was passing along messages about Yovanovitch’s supposed whereabouts from Anthony de Caluwe.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

Apparently it was all just a big joke!

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

Parnas was a busy guy in March. It was then that he was also suggesting things for Donald Trump Jr. to tweet via Joseph Ahearn from America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC. Ahearn was key to setting up the $325K donation from Parnas/Fruman in 2018.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

The right-wing media blitz that Parnas helped facilitate in March worked, in part: Yovanovitch was told in the weeks after that her term wouldn’t be extended, she told House investigators during her deposition in October.

docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…

(Yovanovitch said she had been previously told that her term would be extended by a year.)

But Parnas and Giuliani got what they wanted in April.

“He fired her again,” Giuliani wrote to Parnas on April 23, the day before she was abruptly recalled. “I pray it happens this time,” Parnas replied.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

It’s not clear what they mean by “again” and “this time.” I asked the White House, Parnas’s lawyer, and Giuliani, but no answer.

That same night — April 23 — Parnas messaged a fellow Florida businessman with whom he had spoken about the ambassador previously.

“Working hard to save our country my brother !!!!” Parnas wrote. “The bomb is dropping tomorrow[.]”

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

The next day, Yovanovitch got that late-night phone call from DC telling her to get back to Washington. She said she didn’t get much explanation, other than that there were concerns about her “up the street” at the White House.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

On May 6, the day the State Department made the ambassador's recall public, Parnas texted Tommy Hicks Jr., the RNC co-chair, about it. The pair had been in touch for several months.

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…

But even then, Parnas’s efforts weren’t through. “It’s more important than ever to get a good ambassador that’s loyal to our president in there,” Parnas said to Hicks. “[P]lease make sure you pass on the message[,] every ear more important than ever.”

buzzfeednews.com/article/emmalo…