New documents on eve of trial
House Democrats have released a trove of documents they obtained from Lev Parnas, a close associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, as they prepare to send articles of impeachment to the Senate for Trump’s trial.
The documents made public yesterday add new context to the Democrats’ charges that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrats as he withheld military aid to the country. The materials show that Parnas was in constant communication with Giuliani and also Ukrainian officials as he worked as an intermediary.
Among the documents is a screenshot of a previously undisclosed letter from Giuliani to Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskiy before he took office.
In the letter, Giuliani announces himself as Trump’s personal lawyer and requests a meeting with Zelenskiy ‘‘as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent’’.
The documents were sent to the House Judiciary Committee by three other House committees ‘‘to be included as part of the official record that will be transmitted to the Senate along with the Articles of Impeachment,’’ according to a statement. Some of the materials were made public while others were marked as sensitive.
In a statement, four Democratic House committee chairmen said that they have continued their inquiry so the House impeachment managers ‘‘can present to the Senate the most complete factual record possible’’ before the impeachment trial.
‘‘Despite the president’s unprecedented and sweeping obstruction of our impeachment inquiry, we have continued to collect additional evidence relevant to the president’s scheme to abuse his power by pressing Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election for the president’s benefit,’’ wrote House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, House Oversight and Reform Chairman Carolyn Maloney and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler.
Parnas and his business partner, Igor Fruman, both US citizens who emigrated from the former Soviet bloc, were indicted last year on charges of conspiracy, making false statements and falsification of records. Prosecutors allege they made outsize campaign donations to Republican causes after receiving millions of dollars originating from Russia.
Among the documents released is a handwritten note on stationery from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna that says ‘‘get Zalensky to Annonce that the Biden case will be Investigated.’’ Trump asked Zelenskiy in a July call to investigate his political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. Hunter Biden served on the board of a gas company based in Ukraine. – AP