Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump continues to insist he doesn't know Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump's personal attorney who now says the President was aware of efforts to surface dirt on political rivals.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said he didn't know anything about Parnas, with whom he's posed in photographs.

"I don't know him at all, don't know what he's about, don't know where he comes from, know nothing about him. I can only tell you this thing is a big hoax," he said, adding, "He's probably trying to make a deal for himself."

Parnas, the Soviet-born businessman whose work in Ukraine with Rudy Giuliani stands at the center of the impeachment inquiry, implicated the President in the Ukraine pressure campaign on Wednesday in an interview with CNN.

"Perhaps he's a fine man. Perhaps he's not," Trump said on Thursday, later adding, "I don't believe I've ever spoken to him."

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