Every time we learn new information from people like Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who worked with the president’s personal attorney on the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate a 2020 campaign opponent of President Donald Trump, “it always points in the direction that Trump was putting his interests above America’s security and election integrity.”
That comment pretty much sums it up, and came from Congressman Eric Swalwell, D-California, on Wednesday night after he watched the stunning MSNBC/Rachel Maddow interview with Parnas from earlier that day and another one with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. More of Maddow’s interview was broadcast Thursday evening. If you didn’t see it, find it online and watch it. In its entirety.
Parnas is one of two men who in October was charged federally with a scheme to route foreign money into U.S. elections. Parnas and Igor Fruman also helped Giuliani pressure the administration of new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to announce an investigation of Trump’s top opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. The two were charged, according to an October New York Times story, as part of a probe by federal prosecutors in Manhattan to determine whether Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine may have run afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Since that time, Trump has been impeached in the House after a number of witnesses testified that they knew the president was holding Ukraine military aid hostage until the country announced the Biden investigation – a ploy expected to politically benefit Trump. This week – in fact, the day after Parnas’ interviews – Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate began to stir.
With revelations like these, Parnas upped the ante: