Lev Parnas Implicates Nunes in Maddow Interview: ‘He Knows Who I Am,’ We Met ‘Several Times’
In what can only be described as a bombshell interview with MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, Lev Parnas — an indicted associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani who was heavily involved in the Ukraine scandal at the heart of the president’s impeachment — made a number of jaw-dropping claims and assertions, such as telling Maddow that Vice President Mike Pence canceled his planned Ukraine trip because the Ukrainians hadn’t announced a probe into the Bidens.
Among the biggest eye-openers of the evening was Parnas detailing his relationship with House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA), who has insisted he had no involvement with Parnas or the Ukraine scandal.
Below is a partial transcript of the interview:
MADDOW: Do you know Congressman Devin Nunes?
PARNAS: Yes, I do.
MADDOW: What’s been your relationship with him?
PARNAS: We don’t have too much of a relationship. We met several times at the Trump hotel, but our relationship started getting basically where it expanded was when I introduced to his aide, Derek Harvey, and the reason why Derek Harvey I was told because Devin Nunes had an ethics, an ethics committee, he couldn’t be in the spotlight. He was kind of shunned a little bit and that he was looking into this Ukraine stuff also, they wanted to help out.
MADDOW: You told Mr. Harvey what you were working on in Ukraine?
PARNAS: He was aware of that already. He knew everything.
MADDOW: He already knew that by the time he talked to you.
PARNAS: He had a lot of information already.
MADDOW: Do you believe he’d gotten that information from Mr. Giuliani?
PARNAS: I think that they — like I said, there was other people doing like this op research or whatever, I don’t know what you call it, but it was coming from different sides, yeah.
MADDOW: Given that interaction that you just described with Congressman Nunes and his aide, Mr. Harvey, does it strike you as unusual or inappropriate that Devin Nunes would be one of the lead investigators into this scandal on the house intelligence committee? He’s obviously the top Republican on that committee?
PARNAS: I was in shock when I was watching the hearings and when I saw Devin Nunes sitting up there, and then there was a picture where Harvey was in back sitting. I texted my attorney I can’t believe this is happening.
MADDOW: Because?
PARNAS: Because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden. I mean, Derek Harvey had several Skype interviews I set up with different prosecutors like haladitsky, the corruption prosecutor in Ukraine, so it’s hard to see them lie like that when you know it’s like that scary because you know, he was sitting there and making all these statements and all that when he knew very well that he knew what was going on. He knew what’s happening. He knows who I am.
Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.
