Documents released by the House committee show repeated contact between Lev Parnas, who worked with Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Derek Harvey, an aide to Nunes on the committee, about meetings with Ukrainian prosecutors to get damaging information about Democrat Joe Biden, who is running for president, and about a debunked theory about Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 U.S. election.
The messages between Parnas, who functioned as Giuliani’s emissary to Ukrainian officials, and Harvey indicate Nunes’ office was aware of the back-channel White House effort that has led to Trump’s impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
…The text messages appear to show that Parnas sought to set up Skype and FaceTime calls last spring between Harvey and Ukrainian officials who were assisting Giuliani in his efforts to gather negative information on Biden and to oust the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was seen as an obstacle.
…Parnas told MSNBC in an interview aired this week that he was told to work with Harvey because Nunes “couldn’t be in a spotlight” because of an ethics investigation.
In 2017 the House Ethics Committee investigated whether Nunes had improperly disclosed classified information during the Republican-led investigation into what the Trump campaign knew about Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.
…Following that interview, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) announced on Twitter that Nunes had threatened him with a lawsuit in December unless he apologized for saying Nunes had conspired with Parnas. Lieu included both the original letter from Nunes’ lawyer and Lieu’s Jan. 16 letter in response.
“I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes,” Lieu wrote. “Or, you can take your letter and shove it.”
mmhmm
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