Impeachment report shows Devin Nunes’ calls with Trump allies Giuliani, Lev Parnas
House Democrats on Tuesday published phone records showing Rep. Devin Nunes communicated earlier this year with key players in the events that led to impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, including calls with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Giuliani’s now-indicted business associate Lev Parnas.
The phone records are part of the report Democrats released summarizing evidence they collected at impeachment hearings, charging that Trump inappropriately pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch investigations into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and into a theory that Ukraine officials interfered with the 2016 presidential election.
“President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign,” the Democrats’ report says.
Giuliani is a central figure in the report, with multiple diplomats describing him as the president’s representative in a campaign to pressure Ukraine for investigations that could benefit Trump politically.
Nunes, as the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has vociferously defended Trump during impeachment hearings, saying Trump had every right to investigate the Bidens. Nunes called the impeachment hearings a “Ukraine hoax.”
The phone records show Nunes, R-Tulare, spoke with Giuliani and with Parnas in early April, around the time when a series of opinion articles by conservative journalist John Solomon raised questions about U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and ultimately led to her removal.
Parnas was indicted by federal prosecutors in October and charged with campaign finance violations. Prosecutors also allege that Parnas lobbied a congressman to remove the ambassador.
Nunes, according to the phone records, had at least three phone calls with Giuliani on April 10, in addition to two calls with Parnas on April 12.
Giuliani also called a member of Nunes’ staff, Derek Harvey, on May 8, and a former Nunes staffer, Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who now works on the National Security Council.
Also Tuesday, Nunes reportedly filed a new lawsuit against CNN, alleging the network defamed him in a Nov. 22 news story in which Parnas’ attorney says Nunes sought a meeting with a Ukrainian prosecutor to dig up dirt on Biden.
Nunes in the legal complaint says he did not meet with the prosecutor, and Nunes says CNN should not have relied on Parnas.
“From all the evidence in its possession, CNN was well-aware that Parnas was a renowned liar, a fraudster, a hustler, an opportunist with delusions of grandeur, a man in financial extremis laboring under the weight of a $500,000 civil judgment, and an indicted criminal defendant with a clear motive to lie.”
Parnas’ attorney has said Parnas is willing to testify about his interactions with Nunes.
“Devin Nunes, you should have recused yourself at the outset of the” impeachment hearings, Joseph Bondy wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
The CNN story led a Democratic advocacy group to file an ethics complaint against Nunes, alleging Nunes “used his official office to pursue a domestic political investigation by contacting ex-officials of the Ukrainian government.”
It’s the sixth lawsuit Nunes has filed this year and the third against a news organization. Nunes is demanding more than $435 million from CNN in the defamation lawsuit.
Nunes has also filed lawsuits against Twitter; McClatchy, the parent company of the Fresno Bee; Paul Buxman, a farmer in Nunes’ district; Fusion GPS, a political research company know for producing the so-called Steele dossier; Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog group; and Hearst, a magazine publisher that printed a story drawing attention to Nunes’ family’s move to Iowa.
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 5:19 PM.
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