Giuliani associate says Trump 'knew exactly what was going on' in Ukraine

A close associate of US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden.

Lev Parnas, a US citizen who was born in Ukraine, made several potentially explosive claims in a televised interview Wednesday night with MSNBC, saying that "President Trump knew exactly what was going on."

He said Trump was aware of Giuliani’s efforts to secure an investigation against Biden and the president was briefed regularly.

“President Trump knew exactly what was going on,” said Parnas. “He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the President.”

Parnas said Giuliani requested him in May to deliver an ultimatum to Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskiy that American military assistance would be withheld if an investigation into Biden wasn’t announced.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Parnas said Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine were "all about 2020" and not about working in the interest of the United States.

If Parnas’ claims are true, it undermine a key Republican defense of Trump during the impeachment probe -- that Trump’s withholding of military aid to Ukraine last summer wasn’t a quid pro quo for Biden investigations.

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Parnas said every communication he had with Zelenskiy’s team was at the direction of Giuliani, whom he regularly overheard briefing Trump about their progress by phone.

Giuliani called Parnas’ statements “sad.”

“I feel sorry for him,” Giuliani said Wednesday in a text message to an AP reporter. “I thought he was an honorable man. I was wrong.”

The new accusations came as Democrats in the US House of Representatives released a trove of documents on Tuesday from Parnas’ smartphones that appear to verify parts of his account.

Parnas, who resides in Florida,, was indicted last year on charges of conspiracy, making false statements and falsification of records.

Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, told The New York Times that his client is looking to cooperate with prosecutors in his case, who are investigating Giuliani and his dealings in Ukraine.

House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump in September after the unknown whistle-blower alleged the Republican president pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Biden and his son, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Republican lawmakers have criticized the House’s impeachment probe as a political exercise based on hearsay. They say witnesses like former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who testified at House hearings, never spoke directly to Trump and therefore lack credibility.

The ambassador’s ouster, ordered by Trump, was at the center of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Yovanovitch testified in the House impeachment hearings that she was the victim of a “smear campaign.”

Trump on December 19 became the third US president to be impeached when the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted to charge him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Republican-controlled Senate is due to weigh these charges in a trial in January.

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