What Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has said about Trump, Pence and Ukraine

Nicholas Wu | USA TODAY

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.

An associate of President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani spent the last few days making incendiary accusations against Trump and top administration officials over their alleged involvement in a pressure campaign in Ukraine.

Soviet-born businessman Lev Parnas is alleged to worked on the pressure campaign to have Ukraine officials open an investigation into the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, an accusation at the center of Trump's impeachment. And this week, he's dished what he knows to a number of national media outlets.

His chief claim was revealed in a Wednesday interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. Parnas asserted Trump "knew exactly what was going on" in a campaign to pressure the Ukrainian government to open politically motivated investigations.

Democrats have cited the interviews he has given and the thousands of pages of documents he produced on Tuesday as further evidence of the Trump administration's involvement and knowledge in the scheme.

Republicans, on the other hand, assail Parnas' credibility given the federal campaign finance charges he faces. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Parnas is "desperate to reduce his exposure to prison."

Here is everything Parnas has said so far about Trump and top administration officials:

Trump 'was aware of all my movements'

Parnas said Trump was fully aware of everything he was doing in Ukraine.

"President Trump knew exactly what was going on," Parnas told Rachel Maddow.

“He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the president," he added.

Parnas told The New York Times he did not speak directly with Trump about Ukraine but met him several times. Giuliani kept Trump informed of their efforts, Parnas said to the Times.

Trump denies knowing Parnas as impeachment begins President Donald Trump denies knowing a close associate of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who is publicly claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. (Jan. 16)

“I am betting my whole life that Trump knew exactly everything that was going on that Rudy Giuliani was doing in Ukraine,” Mr. Parnas told the Times.

Trump denies knowing Parnas.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever spoken to him," Trump told reporters on Thursday.

More: Donald Trump says he doesn't know Lev Parnas. Parnas says he has pictures with Trump

More: Lev Parnas, ex-Rudy Giuliani ally, wants to testify against Trump to win leniency. Sound familiar?

Pence 'of course' knew

In a Thursday interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Parnas said "of course" Vice President Mike Pence was aware of what Giuliani and his associates were doing in Ukraine.

"I don't know if the Vice President knew everything we were doing," he added.

When asked a follow-up question about Pence's awareness of a "quid pro quo" with Ukraine, Parnas said he was sure Pence was aware of the "serious situation" because all top administration officials knew of the issue.

"Everybody that was close to Trump knew this was a thorn in the side and this was a serious situation," Parnas said.

Parnas told both CNN and MSNBC he informed top Ukrainian officials Pence would not come to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's inauguration unless an announcement of an investigation into the Bidens was made.

The day after he delivered his message, Parnas said he found out "that Pence is not going to be there."

Pence, for his part, has denied any knowledge of the alleged Ukraine scheme.

Pence said Thursday that Parnas' accusations were "completely false." When asked if he knew Parnas, he said, "I don’t know the guy."

Trump's Ukraine phone call: U.S. and Ukraine relationship, explained U.S. and Ukraine relations go further back than the now infamous phone call between Trump and Zelensky. We explain their relationship.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry 'definitely' knew about Giuliani

According to Parnas' interview with MSNBC, he found out from Giuliani that then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry would attend Zelensky's inauguration after Pence opted not to go.

"When we were in Paris with Rudy, that's when I found out they were going to send Perry instead," Parnas said.

"I don't know to what extent he knew about me....but definitely he knew about Rudy since he called Rudy on his way there to ask him what to discuss [with the Ukrainians]," Parnas said.

Additionally, Parnas said it was Perry's job to tell the Ukrainians that aid was conditioned on the announcement of a Biden investigation.

Giuliani "blew his lid," in Parnas' recounting, when he found out the Ukrainians wanted to make an announcement about corruption, and not about the Bidens and Burisma.

Perry has also asserted his lack of knowledge of the situation in Ukraine and said Giuliani never mentioned anything about the Bidens or Burisma to him.

Attorney General William Barr 'had to have known everything'

In the MSNBC interview, Parnas said Attorney General William Barr was "basically on the team" involved with the Ukraine pressure campaign and "absolutely" knew of their efforts.

"Mr. Barr had to have known everything," Parnas told Maddow. "I mean, it's impossible."

That said, Parnas said he "personally did not speak to him," referring to Barr.

Met with Devin Nunes 'several times'

On MSNBC, Parnas said he met "several times" with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

"He was looking into this Ukraine stuff. He wanted to help out."

"I was in shock" watching the House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings, Parnas said, because Nunes and a top aide "were involved in getting stuff on Biden."

Nunes said in a Thursday interview with Fox News, he remembered an "odd" call with Parnas that had shown up in phone records produced by the House Intelligence Committee.

"I remember that call, which was very odd, random, talking about random things," Nunes said.

In a previous interview, Nunes said he did not remember any details from the call. Later, in December, Nunes said after checking his phone records he recalled getting a call from someone he didn't know and referring him to his staff.

More: 'I remember that call': Devin Nunes recalls 'odd' chat with indicted Giuliani associate Parnas

Contributing: David Jackson, William Cummings, Kristine Phillips, Kevin Johnson, and Kevin McCoy