Lev Parnas gave House Intelligence recordings of Trump and Giuliani: report

AlterNet logoAs Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives move closer to considering which articles of impeachment could be used against President Donald Trump, one GOP name that continues to come up in connection with the impeachment inquiry is Rudy Giuliani — Trump’s personal attorney, former mayor of New York City, and a strong proponent of the Ukrainian government investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. And the House Intelligence Committee, according to ABC News, is in possession of audio and video recordings as well as photos that include both Giuliani and Trump and could be relevant to the House’s impeachment inquiry.

The recordings and photos were obtained because of a House subpoena of Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who was recently arrested — along with fellow Giuliani associate Igor Fruman — on campaign finance charges. Federal prosecutors allege that Parnas and Fruman illegally  funneled foreign donations to political candidates in the United States, and both of them have pled “not guilty.” Continue reading “Lev Parnas gave House Intelligence recordings of Trump and Giuliani: report”

Trump’s Ukraine extortion scheme began as a plot to undermine special counsel Mueller: report

AlterNet logoA new report from the Washington Post claims that President Donald Trump’s efforts to shake down the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden actually began as an effort to undermine the work of special counsel Robert Mueller.

As the Post reports, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has admitted publicly that he started traveling to Ukraine in late 2018 because he’d received a “tip” about the Ukrainian government conspiring against Trump.

While it’s not known for certain who gave Giuliani this “tip,” the Post notes that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has for years been pushing the theory that Ukraine framed the Russian government for the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee.

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