Exclusive: Giuliani associate willing to tell Congress Nunes met with ex-Ukrainian official to get dirt on Biden
"Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December," said Bondy. Shokin was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including then-vice president Biden, over concerns that Shokin was not pursuing corruption cases.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
(CNN)A lawyer for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani tells CNN that his client is willing to tell Congress about meetings the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee had in Vienna last year with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden.
The attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, represents Lev Parnas, the recently indicted Soviet-born American who worked with Giuliani to push claims of Democratic corruption in Ukraine. Bondy said that Parnas was told directly by the former Ukrainian official that he met last year in Vienna with Rep. Devin Nunes.
"Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December," said Bondy.
Shokin was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders , including then-vice president Biden, over concerns that Shokin was not pursuing corruption cases.
Nunes is one of President Donald Trump's key allies in Congress and has emerged as a staunch defender of the President during the impeachment inquiry, which he has frequently labeled as a "circus." Nunes declined repeated requests for comment.
Bondy tells CNN that his client and Nunes began communicating around the time of the Vienna trip. Parnas says he worked to put Nunes in touch with Ukrainians who could help Nunes dig up dirt on Biden and Democrats in Ukraine, according to Bondy.
That information would likely be of great interest to House Democrats given its overlap with the current impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and could put Nunes in a difficult spot.
Bondy tells CNN his client is willing to comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents and testimony as part of the impeachment inquiry in a manner that would allow him to protect his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Bondy suggested in a tweet on Friday that he was already speaking to House Intel though the committee declined to comment.
Giuliani has told CNN previously about his conversations with Shokin and Parnas, saying that this was part of his legal work for his client, President Trump. Parnas' claims about Nunes' alleged involvement offers a new wrinkle and for the first time suggests the efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens involved a member of Congress.
Parnas' claims that Nunes met with Shokin, which has not been previously reported, add further context to a Daily Beast report that Parnas helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Nunes last year, citing another Parnas' lawyer, Ed McMahon.
Those revelations came to a head on Thursday when Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell raised the Daily Beast story publicly during the impeachment hearing.
Parnas, who was indicted on federal campaign finance charges last month, worked with Shokin and Giuliani to push a pair of unfounded claims: that Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats, and that Biden was acting corruptly in Ukraine on behalf of his son Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.
According to Bondy, Parnas claims Nunes worked to push similar allegations of Democratic corruption.
"Nunes had told Shokin of the urgent need to launch investigations into Burisma, Joe and Hunter Biden, and any purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election," Bondy told CNN.
There is no evidence that the Bidens acted inappropriately. Nor is there evidence to support the conspiracy theory that Ukraine worked with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 election.
Yet these claims have been a key part of the public defense of the President put forth by Nunes and other Republicans during the impeachment hearings this month.
Parnas is currently under house arrest in Florida and has pleaded not guilty to charges of federal campaign finance fraud.
Over the past two weeks, CNN approached Nunes on two occasions and reached out to his communications staff to get comment for this story.
In the Capitol on Nov. 14, as CNN began to ask a question about the trip to Vienna, Nunes interjected and said, "I don't talk to you in this lifetime or the next lifetime."
"At any time," Nunes added. "On any question."
Asked again on Thursday about his travel to Vienna and his interactions with Shokin and Parnas, Nunes gave a similar response.
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Not a surprise. Nunes is a scumbag.
Nunes has been such a jerk during the impeachment hearings with his 'holier than thou' persona, it wouldn't bother me one bit to see him under Trump's bus.
I think his political career was almost dead until Trump arrived on the scene. They are two peas in a pod.
One could wonder if Nunes is not a tool of the Russians, which would explain his slavish devotion to Trump.
This is all going to make a heck of an HBO or Netflix miniseries in a few years.
I like Jim Carrey to play Devin Nunes
Hope this is not off subject----but----watched much of the impeachment hearings and Ukrainian corruption was definitely one of the focal points. But, speaking of corruption in the Ukraine I was bewildered to not hear the name Manafort brought up once. And if it was mentioned when I could not watch why was his role not explored? The only reason Manafort was working in Ukraine was because corruption was so prevalent, the profits so great and there was a lot of room for many to play the game.
As far as Nunes, I always suspected he and a few others had some of that 'dirty Russian money' sticking to him.
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deleted for context by Charger
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KD Michigan was "deleted for context"?
how about trolling?
it was a meme of Michelle Obama with a "dick"
"deleted for context" is something entirely different.
How about the mods keep these trolls off the seeds?
That would be a nice change
It's amazing to watch all these right wingers on NT go off topic right away on just about every seed, particularly the ones they have no answer for.
It's like a kindergarten.
It's amazing, but doesnt really make for a good forum.