Don ‘knew’ about effort, Parnas says

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani and President Trump, told MSNBC that “Trump knew exactly what was going on” and that the president supported Parnas and Giuliani’s efforts to find Ukraine-related political dirt on Joe Biden and his son.

In an MSNBC interview, Parnas said Trump “was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the president.”

Parnas (inset) was Giuliani and Trump’s man on the ground in Ukraine, meeting with Ukrainian officials and attempting to convince them to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden.

“Why would President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy’s inner circle, or Minister [of Internal Affairs Arsen] Avakov, or all these people, or [former] President [Petro] Poroshenko meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me,” Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview that aired Wednesday. “And that’s the secret that they’re trying to keep. I was on the ground doing their work.”

After Trump denied knowing Parnas, the Ukraine native’s lawyer posted several photos of Parnas with the president, his daughter Ivanka, her husband Jared Kushner, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

In the interview, Parnas said Attorney General William Barr “was basically on the team” that attempted to convince Ukrainian leaders to announce a Biden investigation. “Barr had to have known everything,” Parnas said.

In addition, Parnas said, Vice President Pence “couldn’t have not known” about a quid pro quo.

Parnas was arrested in October on campaign finance charges.