Lev Parnas, a former Trump donor and associate of Rudy Giuliani’s who was involved in the Ukraine pressure campaign, has reportedly provided photos, video, audio recordings and documents to the House Intelligence Committee.
ABC News reported Sunday that Parnas had submitted the materials to the committee in response to a congressional subpoena that was issued for the businessman’s testimony. Though the exact content of the materials remains unknown, ABC News said some of the audio, video and photos “include Giuliani and Trump.”
Parnas had said initially that he would defy the congressional subpoena ― but later changed his tune.
On Friday, Parnas’ attorney Joseph Bondy reiterated to CNN that his client was willing to comply with the subpoena and was prepared to tell Congress about how Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ― the ranking GOP member of the House Intelligence Committee ― had allegedly met with former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in a bid to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
Though congressional records appear to corroborate Parnas’ claim, Nunes lambasted the accusation as “demonstrably false” ― and threatened to sue CNN and the Daily Beast for reporting on it.
On Sunday, CNBC ― quoting Bondy ― reported that Parnas had also helped Nunes set up meetings via Skype and over the phone with two other Ukrainian prosecutors who claimed “to have evidence that could help [Trump’s] reelection campaign.”
Nunes had initially planned to travel to Ukraine to speak with the prosecutors in person, Bondy said, but later scrapped the trip after realizing that he would need to alert Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of his plans.
Parnas ― who, along with another Giuliani associate Igor Fruman, was arrested and charged with federal campaign finance violations last month ― spent more than a year working with Giuliani to find negative information about Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, Bondy told CNBC.
Parnas and Fruman are also believed to have helped orchestrate the ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
In Yovanovitch’s testimony before Congress earlier this month, she said the two men had worked with Giuliani to “remove me from [my] post.”
“I didn’t understand that at all, because I had never met Mr. Parnas and Mr. Furman, and so it was unclear to me why ― why they were interested in ― in doing this,” she said.