Giuliani associate: 'President Trump knew exactly what was going on' in Ukraine

Show Caption Hide Caption Giuliani associate Lev Parnas claims Trump knew about Ukraine Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas said President Trump "knew exactly what was going on" in Ukraine.

WASHINGTON – The day the House submitted articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, a Ukraine-born associate of Trump’s lawyer said that “President Trump knew exactly what was going on" in Ukraine during the White House's alleged pressure campaign at the center of Trump's upcoming trial.

Lev Parnas, who is alleged to have assisted in the pressure campaign, said Trump and Giuliani were routinely informed of the behind-the-scenes developments in the work he did on their behalf in Ukraine.

“He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the president. I have no intent, I have no reason to speak to any of these officials,” Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham pushed back on Parnas' statements.

"These allegations are being made by a man who is currently out on bail for federal crimes and is desperate to reduce his exposure to prison," she said of Parnas, who is facing unrelated campaign finance charges. "The facts haven’t changed – the president did nothing wrong and this impeachment, which was manufactured and carried out by the Democrats has been a sham from the start."

More: Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas battles to stay out of jail, cites Ukraine 'threats'

In an interview with the New York Times, Parnas said he did not speak to Trump directly about his efforts, though he said he met the president on several occasions. But Giuliani told him he was keeping Trump updated, Parnas said.

Giuliani told the Times that Parnas was "a proven liar" who was seeking attention. The former New York mayor said it was "sad to watch how the Trump haters are using" Parnas.

House Democrats impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for allegedly withholding military aid and a White House visit in order to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and a conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.

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Parnas said Wednesday that the desired investigation into Biden "was never about corruption" as the Trump administration and his allies on Capitol Hill have claimed.

"It was strictly about Burisma which included Hunter Biden and Joe Biden,” he said.

The "main objective" was to get the government of Ukraine to announce the investigation into Biden, Parnas said. That echoed the testimony of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who said what mattered to Trump was the public announcement of the investigations, not the investigations themselves.

“He had to announce the investigations. He didn't actually have to do them," Sondland told the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 20.

In another interview, Parnas told CNN's Anderson Cooper that only the press releases from Ukraine mattered "because nobody actually trusted them to do an investigation."

"It was all about 2020, to make sure he had another four years," Parnas said. "That was the most important thing is for him to stay on another four years and keep the fight going. I mean, there was no other reason for doing it."

The former Giuliani associate said he was willing to testify about his allegations in the Senate impeachment trial.

In his interview with Cooper, Parnas described two occasions in which he offered a "quid pro quo" to Ukrainian officials, though he said those were not the only times.

In the first, he said he delivered a message to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that Trump would grant him a White House visit, or at least statement of support, if he announced the opening of the investigations.

After Zelensky was elected, Parnas said a demonstration of U.S. support at his inauguration was a top priority for the new president. Parnas said he told Zelensky in "very strict and very stern" terms that he had to immediately announce the "Biden investigation" if he wanted anything from Trump.

"If they didn't make the announcement, basically there would be no relationship," Parnas said. He said the threat implied that not just military aid, but all assistance, would be cut off if Zelensky did not cooperate. In addition, Vice President Mike Pence would "not be at the inauguration and there would be no visit to the White House."

When he was told it did not look like the announcement was coming, Giuliani said, "OK, they'll see," according to Parnas.

Parnas also worked with Giuliani to try and secure a U.S. visa for a former Ukrainian prosecutor who said he had incriminating information about Biden, according to text messages Parnas' attorney gave to House investigators.

Parnas and another associate of Giuliani, Igor Fruman, are facing unrelated campaign finance charges and evidence in the case includes $325,000 allegedly contributed under a false donor name to a political action committee for Trump.

New impeachment evidence: Lev Parnas, associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, pressed for Ukraine investigation into Joe Biden

Previously, Trump denied knowing the two Ukrainian-born business partners when asked, dismissing a photograph that showed him with one of the men at the White House. Trump has also denied he did anything wrong in regards to Ukraine and has dismissed the impeachment investigation as a "witch hunt".

“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in October.

Parnas called that denial a "lie" to Maddow.

The interview with Parnas comes after House Democrats released new records and evidence from him, including a photograph of a previously-undisclosed letter from Giuliani to Ukrane President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 10.

“In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you on this upcoming Monday, May 13th, or Tuesday, May 14th,” Giuliani wrote.

Parnas continued in the interview, "I mean they have no reason to speak to me. Why would President Zelenskiy’s inner circle, or Minister Avakov, or all these people, or President Poroshenko meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me. And that's the secret that they're trying to keep."

"I was on the ground doing their work,” he declared, later saying Giuliani told officials in Ukraine that Parnas was a representative of Trump and acting on his behalf.

Parnas said that he would put Giuliani on speakerphone so the president's personal lawyer would confirm Parnas was representing Trump.

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Parnas also claimed former national security adviser John Bolton, who has said he will testify if subpoenaed by the Senate, Attorney General William Barr and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., were involved or aware of what was happening.

“Everybody was in the loop,” Parnas stated.

Phone records show that Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and one of Trump's most outspoken supporters in Congress, spoke with Parnas in April.

Nunes told Fox News on Wednesday that he did not know Parnas and did not recognize the name when he called. But he said he remembered that call, which was "very odd, random and talked about random things."

"This is someone who's been indicted for major felonies," Nunes said. "This is someone who doesn't tell the truth."

Parnas told CNN that Pence and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were also aware of the "quid pro quo."

When asked how he knew that Pence was aware of the alleged plan to pressure Zelensky, Parnas cited his close relationship with Giuliani.

"Democrat witnesses have testified under oath in direct contradiction to Lev Parnas statements last night," said Pence's Chief of Staff Marc Short in a statement. "This is very simple: Lev Parnas is under a multi-count indictment and will say anything to anybody who will listen in hopes of staying out of prison."

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Parnas and Maddow also discussed screenshots of WhatsApp messages with Republican candidate for Congress Robert Hyde that were released by House Democrats.

The two appear to discuss surveillance of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted by the Trump administration, while she was in Ukraine.

Parnas claimed that "there was no other motivation" to remove Yovanovitch except to get her out of the way of the pressure campaign.

He also stated he met Hyde at a Trump Hotel where Hyde was often "at the bar" intoxicated.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, Nicholas Wu, Kevin McCoy, Jeanine Santucci USA TODAY