Text messages tie Nunes’ office closer to Ukraine plot
WASHINGTON — As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, RTulare, presented a fiery defense of President Trump during impeachment hearings last month, angrily accusing Democrats of ginning up a false narrative about the president’s efforts to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political rival.
But newly released text messages suggest Nunes’ staff was aware of and involved in portions of the scheme, casting a new light on his combative defense.
Documents released by the House committee show repeated contact between Lev Parnas, who worked with Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph 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 backchannel White House effort that has led to Trump’s impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Parnas, who is facing federal campaign finance violation charges in New York, has publicly turned on Trump and Giuliani in recent weeks. He has provided documents to the House committee and given explosive media interviews as the Senate prepares to determine whether to remove Trump from office.
In his interviews, Parnas has sought to tie Nunes closely to the attempt to unearth dirt on Biden and to gather information on an unsubstantiated theory promoted by Russia — but refuted by the U.S. intelligence community — that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
A spokesman for Nunes did not answer an email seeking comment.
During the House impeachment inquiry, Nunes accused Democrats of coordinating with the whistleblower who first alleged that Trump had blocked nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine until newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly committed to announcing an investigation of Biden and his son Hunter, and the false claims about 2016.
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.