Lev Parnas, a pal of Rudy Giuliani’s, is prepared to give Congress information that is “essential” to his role in the impeachment inquiry.
“Review of these materials is essential to the Committee’s ability to corroborate the strength of Mr. Parnas’ potential testimony,” wrote Joe Bondy, Parnas’s criminal defense attorney, in a Saturday court filing.
Bondy asked District Judge Paul Oetken for the Southern District of New York in the letter to allow him to transfer more evidence collected by the government in the Giuliani associate’s criminal case on to Congress.
Bondy, who has used Parnas’s apparent desire to split from President Trump as a springboard to disclose embarrassing information about top GOP politicos, tweeted on Monday that he had already given the House Intelligence Committee a copy of the contents of the iPhone Parnas was carrying when arrested.
After our trip to DC, we worked through the night providing a trove of Lev Parnas’ WhatsApp messages, text messages & images—not under protective order—to #HPSCI, detailing interactions with a number of individuals relevant to the impeachment inquiry. #LetLevSpeak #LevRemembers pic.twitter.com/HdHaCyZXIm
— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 13, 2020
The phone contains the tantalizing prospect of more information around Parnas’s associations with Ukrainian oligarchs and the extent to which those links reach Giuliani and, by extension, his client President Trump.
Parnas was notably hired by Ukrainian gas billionaire Dmytro Firtash in June as a lavishly paid interpreter. Firtash has spent the last five years stranded in Vienna while fighting extradition to the U.S. on foreign bribery charges. An attorney for the oligarch, Ralph Isenegger, gave Parnas’ family a $1 million loan in September with loose repayment terms and no collateral.
Manhattan federal prosecutors have said they expect to file further charges in Parnas’s case, after he was indicted in October in a criminal campaign finance scheme.
Judging by the flurry of tweets and filings this weekend, however, ongoing discovery in the case may continue to serve as a pipeline for evidence from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, through Parnas, and onwards to the House.
You don’t even have to pull on a loose end to unravel this sweater. It insists on unraveling itself, no really, no trouble at all, it’s glad to do it.
“You want to grant me testimonial immunity? Oh, gee, I’m overwhelmed. You shouldn’t have…I couldn’t. Oh, all right.”
So much Strauss, so much Mohnzelten, so much Welschriesling Trockenbeerenauslese. The poor man!
Excretive Privilege will strike again…