sworn vote to impartial justice in this trial. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. tonight we will present part two of my interview with lev parnas. now, as i said before, the first part of the interview last night -- and i want to reiterate it now -- mr. parnas is under federal indictment. he was one of four defendants charge in the early october with multiple felonies related to an alleged scheme to foreign illegal donations to various republican candidates and campaign, including more than $300,000 in an allegedly illegal donation to the main super pac supporting the president's re-election. mr. parnas is under indictment. he says he would like to

cooperate with the impeachment investigators. he says he would also like to cooperate with the federal prosecutors who have charged him in the southern district of new york. but he is right now out on bond awaiting trial. and i will just mention at the outset that i am cognizant of the fact that we are presenting the second part of interview tonight rather than diving into some of the other momentumous and historic news today, including the start today of the senate trial of president trump. today marks only the third time in u.s. history that an american president has faced an impeachment trial in the senate, and it was a solemn beginning today. the administrating of the oath to the chief justice of the supreme court, to all senators, all senators individually signing their names to the oath one by one in alphabetical order. it's a solemn thing, it's a sobering thing. this is a big deal.

and it is worth the massive headlines that it's getting all over the country. sit absolutely worth marking this day in history. it is also worth noting that the nonpartisan government accountability office today issued a ruling that it was illegal for president trump to withhold the id to ukraine as part of this scheme, that what he did there was against the law. for that to be arriving today, that ruling from the government accountability office on the day the senate impeachment trial starts, this is all a big deal. but it's also becoming clear that what happened next in the impeachment of president trump in this senate trial may depend in part on the additional evidence and witnesses who are still coming forward as the ukraine scheme is coming more fully to light. and so onward. here's part two.

all right, one of the main questions -- a lot of different people have asked -- i myself have asked -- main question asked about mr. parnas' dig to give this first public interview is why he would speak out publicly while he was out on bond awaiting trial. right? that is atypical behavior to say the least from a federal criminal defendant, who has a sent yent lawyer. the public remarks could only disadvantage a defendant with his or her lawyers. if you speak out to the media it's going hurt your case. that is the common wisdom for cull defendants in criminal trials so why is mr. parnas doing it? well, in this case, mr. parnas says he has a significant fear of the justice department, and

specifically he has a significant fear of attorney general william barr. for him, that is not reason to be quiet. that is part of reason why he's making his case now to the public. my understanding from spending a long time with mr. parnas doing this interview is that he believes he's safer putting this stuff out in the public sphere than he is keeping his mouth shut. while the justice department knows what he was involve in the and they know what he knows and they have his fate the their hands. >> my only objective is to get to truth out because i never thought i was doing anything wrong. i still -- i regret certain things that i did because, you know, hurting the ambassador, because that was not something, but it was part of -- when you're in a war, you think casualties and stuff like that. it was -- and i keep saying it, it was like, you know, being in a cult. organized crime. i don't think trump is like

organized crime. he's like a cult leader. right now, the scary part -- and that's what i keep mentioning and people don't understand, there's a lot of republicans who would go against him. if you take a look -- and you know very well because you have been following -- the difference between why trump is powerful now, he wasn't that powerful. he became powerful when he got william barr. people became scared. am i scared? yes. i'm more scare of the justice department than these criminals right now. because the scariest part is getting lock in the some room and being treated as an animal when you did nothing wrong. or when you're not -- and that's the tool they're using. just because they're trying to scare me into not talking. but with god's help and my lawyer next to me that i know will go to bat for me no matter what with the truth, i'm taking a chance. my wife is scared.

my kids are nervous. >> he says they're trying to scare me into not talking. mr. parnas is referencing something specific actually that i asked him about in more detail at a different part of the interview i'm going to show you in just a moment. but what mr. parnas describes there saes cultish environment. him saying getting out of the cultish environment of the president makes him resome of his actions. that thing he's saying about it being a cult, that he regrets some of his behavior, that's at the heart of the impeachment scandal, which is this concerted effort he was involved in to accuse joe biden of wrong doing and to get ukraine to announce investigations of vice president biden. in terms of the information, the allegations against biden,

mrmr. mr. shoeken makes allegation. mr. lute sen koe. do you believe those allegations were true? >> when we were in the thick of things -- i keep saying it's like a cultish environment being around president trump. because i mean, i have been in d.c. for two years. trump hotel type of situation. i truly believed seeing different information that was handed to us at that time that joe biden was doing something illegal -- not so much hunter bide, but joe biden. but after analyzing all the evidence and sitting back and understanding what's going on, i don't think that -- i don't think vice president biden did anything wrong. of i think he was protecting our country and getting rid of probably a crooked attorney general, and people use this to their advantage. a lot of rich people in ukraine

have their own agenda and they use is here for their own political stuff some this was a big one. >> in terms of the material that was handed over to intelligence, on march 22nd, mr. lutsenko texts you in russia. there's a translation provided. it says, if you don't make a decision about madam you're bringing into question all my allegations, including about "b." so when he says madam, is he talking about -- >> ambassador yovanovitch. >> when he said all my allegations about "b" -- >> burisma and biden. >> it was always biden. nobody cares about burisma. the concern was biden and hunter biden. >> in that text message to you, is he saying in effect, listen, if you want me the make these biden allegations you're going to have to get rid of this ambassador?

>> absolutely. >> was he threatening if you didn't get rid of the ambassador he would withdraw? >> he actually did. several times. >> he wanted ambassador yovanovitch ousted for his own career reasons. he clashed with her in his anti-corruption efforts. >> absolutely, yes. >> l urk tsenko and shoeken had an interest in getting rid of ambassador yovanovitch. >> yes, and it's interesting because they don't like each other. lutsenko used to be his underling. but listen, it's a different environment over there, and unless you live it, unless you do business there, unless you visit there and understand it, bribery and -- it's just a way of life. regular people at the store do it. they'll bribe the butcher to get a better piece of meat. it's normal. or to get a better seat at a concert. it's the way of life over there.

that's why everybody hopes zelensky can change it. it's already embedded. in america it's like you become a politician to serve your country. not to make money. because you can't make money. in ukraine, it's the opposite. some of these people may millions of dollars to get a seat as a politician. >> because they make more money. >> once they get there. so it's all about the money and about the power. >> lev parnasing a key fixer and figure with accusation of wrong doing in ukraine to force the ukrainian government to announce investigations into mr. biden to force out the u.s. ambassador marie yovanovitch who was in the way of that effort. mr. parnas apologizing to that ambassador, we heard that last night, and as i just showed you, mr. parnas also says he now does not believe vice president biden

did anything wrong in ukraine and that vice president biden's actions there, which mr. parnas helped try to turn into a scandal, in his words he says mr. biden's actions were take ton protect our country and get rid of a crooked attorney general. by confirming the nation of his own communications with that -- mr. parnas also makes clear the removal of yof was a demand from the key accusers he and mr. giuliani and the president and others have been using to make this false case against biden. the accusers, including lutsenko and shoeken wanted yovanovitch gone. he demanded to parnas that the ambassador be removed or his allegations against biden might be at risk. shoeken and lutsenko wanted

yovanovitch removed because they were corrupt. they wanted her out of their way too. think about the collateral damage caused not only in our country but around the sborld in ukraine by this scheme to aid the president's re-election effort. that gives you a clear soens of what it might be in ukraine. president trump's person role, more than that coming up in this hour as well. before we get to that, there's one other piece i want to foreground here that isn't specifically about president trump. it's about another senior member of the trump immigration who lev parnas says step in the to play a role in the ukraine scheme at a very key moment. the new president of ukraine, elected on this anti-corruption platform, engage in the ongoing war with russia, he's ingnawing ra rate in the may.

as the new president he needs a strong show of support why the united states government key to ukraine in terms of its fight with russia among other things. on the eve of zelensky's inauguration, mr. parnas told me that he was directed by rudy giuliani who had spoke ton president trump about it, he was directed to really turn. the pressure on ukraine. to demand to the ukrainian government that unless they announced a bide investigation, the ukrainian government would lose not only all u.s. military aid, they would lose all military aid and vice president pence would not come to the inauguration of the new president. vice president's plans to attend the inauguration at that point were in full swing. the threat was that that would be canceled, that pence wouldn't come unless they met the biden investigation demand. we played this portion of the interview l.a. night, but here's

a squib. >> i told him the announcement was the key at that time because of the inauguration, that pence would not show up. >> unless he announced a investigation into joe biden, no u.s. officials, particularly vice president pence would not come to the inauguration. >> particularly the vice president mike pence. >> that conversation as mr. parnas describes it, he says that was in may of last year, may 12th, specifically. a meeting with a top aide to the president-elect. he says that demand to announce the biden investigation was rebuffed the ukrainians did not agree to announce a biden investigation despite the threat mr. parnas was making for the white house. when they were rebuffed and he did not, the following day, the white house made good and mike pence did cancel his planned trip to the zelensky inauguration. that's as far as we got in the interview with mr. parnas last

night. but the way it went down there after is that after vice president pence canceled his trip to the zelensky inauguration, within a few days the administration decided they would send another senior official in his defense. so let's pick up the story there. >> that's when we flew to paris, and in paris we met rudy. and when we were in paris with rudy, basically that's when i found out that perry was going to the -- that they decided to send perry there instead. >> rick perry could be going energy secretary. >>. you learned that from mr. giuliani. >> correct. >> was perry aware of what you were trying to do in ukraine, as far as getting the elections announced? >> i don't know about me, what he was told, but definitely he knew about rudy because he called rudy on his way there to ask him what to discuss.

rudy told him to make sure to give them the message. >> giuliani told per way what you need to convey to the ukrainian government is they need to announce an investigation and joe biden. >> definitely. >> do you know if the message was also that ukraine would lose their military aid, they would lose their aid if they didn't announce those investigations? >> i don't resucall them having specific conversation about that. i don't know what conversation they had prior or after, but i know there was another conversation that perry called after the inauguration telling him that he spoke to zelensky and zelensky is going to do it. >> perry says, i spoke to zelensky and got him to agree and announce the investigation? >> yeah. and they did. every time somebody would meet zelensky, they would, like,

agree, and then they would walk it, baa. so they announced something about corruption, that he's going to do corruption, but giuliani blew his lid on that, that that wasn't what we discussed. it has to be about joe biden and underneath hadar biden and burisma. >> he said the name biden had to be spoken. >> always. >> they did not want them to announce corruption investigations or anti-corruption efforts. that was not it. it had to be about biden. it had to say biden. lev parnas alleging that former energy secretary rick perry, who we know from impeachment testimony was tasked by the white house with one of three fishes along with kurt volcanoer and gordon sondland taking the lead. this was the three amigos. according to parnas, rick perry was direct bid r.j. r.j. to deliver the message to the ukrainian government that they needed to announce

investigations into joe biden. mr. parnas says that mr. perry phoned mr. giuliani, contacted mr. giuliani and said that he had been in touch with the ukrainian president, that he had conveyed the message, and that in fact the ukrainian government had agreed to make that announcement. now, secretary of energy rick perry denied playing any role in this scheme, but he did crash out of trump cabinet as soon as the scandal started to come to the surface. it was october 16th when "the wall street journal" reported secretary perry did call giuliani to talk about ukraine. he did so at the direction of president trump. the following day, october 17th, rick perry tendered his resignation to the president as energy secretary. the day after that, october 18th, secretary perry announced he would not comply with a subpoena in the impeachment investigation. whether he would comply now with

a subpoena to testify to the senate treel of the president, that remains to be seen. we'll be right back with more. >> i know that there was another conversation that perry called after the inauguration tell him he spoke to zelensky and zelensky is going to do it. what does help for heart failure look like?

it looks like this. ♪ the beat goes on ♪ entresto is a heart failure pill that helps improve your hearts ability to pump blood to the body. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. ♪la-di-la-di-dah don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. ♪the beat goes on yeah! "191including best director, best original screenplay... there's only one way this ends. and best picture of the year. last man standing.

(whistling) ♪when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion,♪ ♪upset stomach, diarrhea. try pepto liquicaps for fast relief and ultra-coating. ♪nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea.♪ get powerful relief with pepto bismol liquicaps. looking to get your business off to a fast start in the new year? it's go time! switch to comcast business and get fast internet on the nation's largest gig-speed network. plus, complete reliability with 4g lte backup. and, cloud-based security to help protect the devices on your network.

greenlight your business in 2020 with fast internet and voice for $64.90 per month. switch now and get a $100 prepaid card when you add comcast business securityedge. call today. comcast business. beyond fast.

did you ever have any communations with the counsel to the president jay sekulow during the time you were involved in this. >> several conversations. one in particular but i would are to refresh my memory by looking at text messages, having to do with shokin's visa, and toll me jay was aware of everything, that he brought him up to speed and i could call him and he was on top of it. >> by that did he mean he was aware of the effort to try to get ukraine to announce investigations? >> oh, absolutely. one of the things i think was the best quote ever was when

mr. sondland said, everybody was in the loop. >> you belief that everybody was in the loop. >> i don't believe. i no. i was witness to conversations and, you know, between them and everybody was in the loop. even didn't agree with the loop. jay sekulow didn't agree with what rudy was doing, but he knew what he was doing. >> how do you know he didn't agree with him? >> because i heard them talk about it. >> what was his objection? >> he didn't want to be involved in the ukraine stuff. you would have to ask him, but my feeling with the conversations and watching the way jay approached that situation was he just didn't want to be a part of it. wanted to stay away. >> you mentioned you were trying to get mr. shokin a visa to come to the united states. why? >> after the conversation giuliani had on skype they discussed they were going to

have shokin come here and giuliani would debrief him in front of lindsey graham and certain other people like the attorney general. >> because mr. shokin was going say what? >> he was going testify and say joe biden basically forced him out because he was going investigate hunter biden and burisma. >> was the president himself ever involved in the effort to get the visa for mr. shokin? in the text messages released giuliani appears to tell you he has to get number one involved is that a reference to the president is this. >> absolutely. >> did the president ever work on it? >> of course. >> lev parnas stating that president trump himself was aware of and involve in the efforts to try bring at least one biden accuser from ukraine to the united states. to among other things, brief senator lind di graham and attorney general william barr. we believe that accuser, former

ukrainian prosecutor victor shokin had his visa to visit the united states by the u.s. embassy in kiev because it was the official u.s. government view of him that he was way too corrupt as a public official to be allowed a u.s. visa. but it's also noteworthy that mr. parnas says that he believes counsel to the president jay sekulow was aware of everything that was going on in this ukraine scheme but that he disapproved of it. in mr. parnas' words he said mr. sekulow wanted to stay away from all the stuff involving ukraine. i should note that mr. sekulow is expected to be one of the main defense counsels for president trump in the impeachment trial which convened today in the senate. i should note parnas says mr. sekulow, however much he disapproved he was directly involve in the advising him not to cooperate with the investigation into the ukraine scheme and signing him up with

some other lawyers who lev ultimately fire but who also told him not to cooperate with the investigation into ukraine. how did you end up with mr mr. downing and dowd? >> it's a good question. we were in vienna when we got notified we had the congressional -- what's it called? >> question. >> question. i was there with victoria working on a case, and the first people i came to was them. i said, what do you die do? they said, call rudy. i called rudy. his first response was, don't worry about it. forget about it. i was like, what do you mean? we need an attorney. get me an attorney. he said, oh, i have a great one, john dowd. we got excited. we didn't know who he was but we knew he have the president's attorney, so it was an exciting

situation even though all this was going on. it was like a movie to us. but i call john dowd, introduced myself. rudy connected us. at first everything was good. then 15 minutes later i get a call from him saying we got a pro, i'm not going to be able to represent you. i go, what happened? he goes, i have been speaking with jay sekulow, and because i was the president's attorney and i'm still kind of doing work for the president, there's a conflict of the interest, unless he wants to waive it and i don't think the president is going waive that conflict. because at that point john dowd didn't know who. he didn't think i had any relationship with the president. i responded to him and i said, i think he will. >> you think the president will waive the conflict. >> absolutely. i said give rudy a call, i'm sure we can work this out. because this is very important. about 15, 20 minutes later i got acall back from john dowd. he said, you're one lucky guy.

i just got a call from jay sekulow. i got the permission and i'm getting it in writing short will i. >> you're one lucky guy. i want to interrupt here for a moment to show you in fact what mr. parnas is talking about here is corroborated by some of the documentation he handed over to the house intelligence committee. this letter from jay sekulow saying that he, jay sekulow got president trump's express commission for lev parnas to be represented legally by john dowd. that was a let they are mr. parnas turned over to the impeachment investigators and now has been conveyed to the senate. so jay sekulow says, i talked to the president about you, lev parnas, and i have received his permission to let you use john dowd as your lawyer. mr. parnas thinks he's lucky. he's helping him out. getting the president's lawyer. this is wonderful.

he went on to say he's advised by his new lawyer in consultation with jay sekulow and r.udy giuliani that he shoud not cooperate with the investigation into ukraine, the impeachment investigation that's brewing in congress. he's been asked by the investigators to give information. he says he's been advised by his new legal team with the white house and jay sekulow that he shouldn't cooperate even though he says he personally would have been happy to. you got a request from congress to testify in the impeachment investigation. you were inclined to say yes. >> absolute i. i had nothing to hide. we are doing nothing illegal. >> your lawyer john dowd said not to cooperate and the president would give you cover? >> it was more than that. i went to john dowd's house. he got jay sekulow on the phone and also rudy and they basically

came up with a situation that said because i worked for rudy and because i worked for victoria and because rudy worked for the president, we had three-way privilege and basically patsy colon was going to be writing a let to have congress telling them that nobody is cooperating and that would protect us under the same order and he would follow up with that. again, this is the president of the united states so, i said, okay, hear's all the information i have. i did my duty. i gave them whatever paper work i had. >> mr. parnas says he disagreed with this decision not to cooperate with the congressional investigation into ukraine scheme. he said he was inclined to hand over whatever he had, but he says the president himself approved mr. parnas using this lawyer, who the the president himself had used, mr. dowd. mr. sekulow and the white house was part of team giving him

advice he should not cooperate. he figured it was probably fine, since all of this seemed to be coming down to him from the president of the united states and all these people who worked with the president. but then lev parnas got arrested and that's when things went quite pear shaped. mr. dowd was your attorney for some time. >> i fired hem in jail. >> you fired him from jail. what happened there? >> yes, and mr. downing. basically when we were arrested, obviously i had no one else to call. i didn't know. we just retained dowd and downing. so i called downing to come there, and i started seeing in the process of the bail stuff, the way things were going on, they were more concentrating on -- i didn't feel they were trying to get me out, and at that point i had a meeting with john dowd, and downing in the jail, and john dowd just instead

of comforting me and, you know, trying to calm me down, telling me it's going to be okay, don't worry basically started talking to me like a drill sergeant and giving me orders, like be a good boy. >> he said be a good boy. >> i don't want to quote him exactly on the words he used in that because it was a while ago and i don't remember exactly, but it was his condescending attitude like, who do you think you are telling the president or giuliani to come out and -- because one of the things i said, i said, i can't believe nobody's coming out in our defense and saying we didn't do wrong, we are good citizens, we work. and basically word for word. and then i said, if you don't get out of here right now, something bad's going to happen, because i don't want to see two of you. at that point downing hit the security button and took them out and me out. >> this is a heated conversation. you told dowd and downing to get out. >> i threw them out.

>> were they telling you to sacrifice yourself in order to protect the president? >> that's what i felt. >> is the imp will i communicati -- implication of this story of the lawyers is you feel people loyal to the president were trying to influence your defense and case in a way that was against your interest bus in the president's interests? >> absolutely. i think they're trying to keep me quiet. >> lev parnas, again, should be note second down out on bond awaiting trial on multiple felony counts for allegedly funneling foreign and illegal donations to republican candidates and campaigns, including the super pac that's supporting president trump's re-election effort. in terms of the lawyer he was talking about here, kevin downing was the main defense lawyer for the president's campaign chairman, p.aul manafort, who's currently serving more than seven years in prison. john dowd was counsel on the

russia investigation. downing and dowd have been fired by lev parnas in the situation you just heard him tribe there, that jailhouse confrontation. as for jay sekulow, the gentleman on the ready of your screen here, he will be representing president trump as one of his defense counsels in the u.s. senate in the president's impeachment trial. speaking of the president, more ahead. d. >> man: what's my safelite story?

my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me. >> tech: hi, i'm adrian. >> man: thanks for coming. ...with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. now no fruit is forbidden. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? for all-day, all-night protection. through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from finding out what's selling best... to managing your fleet... to collaborating remotely with your teams.

giving you a nice big edge over your competition. that's the power of edge-to-edge intelligence. {tires screeching} {truck honking} [alarm beeping]

(avo) life doesn't give you many second chances. but a subaru can. (dad) you guys ok? you alright? wow. (avo) eyesight with pre-collision braking. standard on the subaru ascent. the three-row subaru ascent. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru.

we've got one last piece of the lev parnas sprf to bring you. i'll tell you in advance it races more questions than it answers. the person who can answer those questions not lev parnas, but however secretary of state mike pompeo. or perhaps other state department officials who know about the actions of secretary of state mike pompeo and the state department at this time. when you near people gnash their teeth about the fact that the

administration hasn't handed over any pieces of documentations, the state department won't defend its own roll role, this is why. this is an example of why. one of the mysteries that still lingers is about that smear campaign that was carried out against the u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. that was aimed at getting her removed from the embassy, from the post. ultimately she was removed. told to get on the next plane out. she got a call saying your security is at risk. get out. that was in lit april. her departure was announced by the state department shortly there after saying it was normal and long planned when it was anything but. in addition to lying about the circumstances of her departure, one question that's always nagged about the state department and the role of secretary of state mike pompeo is why the smear campaign was necessary. after all, if marie yovanovitch

with you in the way of the president's campaign to get the ukraine to help him with the re-election effort or if the president was unhappy with her for any other reason for that matter, made up or real, he's the president. he could just fire her. he could have her recalled from her post. why did they have to go through this public humiliating drama? well, in my interview with lev parnas, mr. parnas told me president trump tried to fire ambassador yovanovitch several times and it, for some reason, didn't work. >> the president kept firing her and she wouldn't leave, so nobody could understand what was going on. >> public information, she was removed at the time she was removed. back in the united states at the end of aprille you're saying the president of the united states fired her before then. >> he fired her to my knowledge at least four or five times. he even had a breakdown and

screamed fire her tonight as his assistant, the secretary. and she said, mr. president, i can't do that. >> he was directing the state department and to a move her and they were refuse something. >> correct. >> multiple times and it didn't work is because you talked tot president about that? >> i spoke to the president once about that or twice. once or twice. once directly at our dinner when he fired her actually at the dinner which was the most surprising thing ever. >> tell me more. >> basically at that dinner we had a conversation. it was six of us there. it was an intimate dinner. >> at the white house? >> no, it was at the trump hotel, but it was at the private area there. looks like a little white house. >> and the president was there. >> absolutely. the president was there, his son don jr. was there. -on i don't know how the conversation came up, but i remember it was me saying the

ambassador was bad mouthing had imand saying the president was going get impeached. at that point he turned around to john desteph know who was his aid at the time and said fire her. >> there was a silence in the room. and he responded to him and said, mr. president we can't do that right now because pompeo hasn't been confirmed yet and we don't have -- so several conversations. he mentioned it again. i don't know how many times at that dinner. once or twice or three times but he fired her several times. >> he reiterated that she should be fired and he was ordering her to be fired. >> a couple of things here. first we should say lev parnas told me in this interview that no longer believes marie yovanovitch actually was bad mouthing president trump or he was going to be impeach. he witnessed that was part of

the disinformation campaign. he regrets participating in it, apologized to the ambassador in my interview with him. he regrets believing to things about her, participating in the effort to get her fired. the other thing to note here, though, is the meeting that mr. parnas was describing he says took place on april 30, 201. from what he's describing where the meeting happened and who was at that meeting we believe there was a meeting of that type on april 30, 2018 at the location mr. parnas is describing. on april 30th, mike pompeo had been senate confirmed just a few days before. mike pompeo however had not been sworn in officially as secretary of state, so perhaps that was the source of confusion saying, we can't do it yet. mr. pompeo isn't formally in place yet. we don't know. i think you would take mr. parnas' account that there's

an expectation in the white house, around the president that once mike pompeo was fully in charge of the state department, once trump had his guy in theres the secretary of state, ambassador yovanovitch would be fired. in the end it would be another year before that actually happened. >> but that was not the only time he fired her. because he fired her at least four other occasions that religirudy giuliani went to the white house, had conversations with him, and came become and informed me, victoria and joe. he fired her when he gave an order to ma order to mike pompeo once. he told rudy to speak to pompeo. rudy spoke to pompeo. they got into it. they had another meeting at the white house where he told bolton to fire her. bolton didn't want to pyre her. rudy got into it with all of them again. at one point he told madeline to

fire her. so i mean, that was becoming comical because i couldn't understand -- you're the president. when i say comical, it's not comic comical, but at that point it was more affirmation to me there was people against the president of the united states if they're not listening to his orders. that's where the smear campaign was coming about. it was a boost to help them if the media started egging him on, if there was something on, he would just tweet and pyre her. >> they couldn't get it done through normal channels even with the president himself being involved in the somewhat normal channels. so they started to smear campaign to try to create media agitation against ambassador yovanovitch, and maybe that would make it possible for the president to evade or elide direct channels and do it with the support of the conservative

media who would advance these claims? this is fascinating right? according to parnas, the smear campaign was not meant to convince president trump he was bad. he was already on board with that. happy with that. the smear campaign was meant to help his efforts to pyre her. fire her by tweet, make it public instead of yelling it out at random meetings and dinners. but this narrative also present us with a sort of micked complicated picture of mike pompeo in this scandal. on the one hand, secretary pompeo refused to support ambassador yovanovitch publicly when she was being attacked and it was his office that ultimately removed her from her post work post, with no evidence he believed or the state department had any real reason, any substantial reason to get her out. we also know mike pompeo was in contact with rudy giuliani who was running the whole ukraine

including the smear campaign and when lev parnas was exchanging alarming text messages who reported to have ambassador yovanovitch under physical surveillance and appeared to be raising the prospect of physical harm or intimidation being carried out against her. i should also mention the material parnas turned over including these text messages involving rudy giuliani and victoria tensing a fox news lawyer working with giuliani to get yovanovitch fired. in the months before yof was finally recalled, tensing asks giuliani, quote, is there absolutely commit for her, her all caps, meaning yovanovitch, to be gone this week? giuliani responds, quote, yes. not sure how salute. we'll get a reing in the morning and call you. pompeo is now aware of it. talk to him on friday. the next month a conservative

journalist john solomon wrote to parnas and victoria tense and her husband saying he, john solomon need state department help on, quote, hunter biden contacts. what's state department help did john solomon expect to get and why did he think lev parnas and friends could get it for him? is that how the state department runs? all that points to mike pompeo's state department being an ally, a team for trump and his associate on the ukraine scheme. but it's unclear. you have parnas describing pompeo as blocking the firing of yovanovitch at several points as late as last year when john bolton left the white house as the ukraine scheme was being exposed. texts show pompeo is not in good stabbed'd standingle quote, bolton is out. pompeo is next. with a mixed contradictory

picture like that i have a lot of questions for secretary of state mike pompeo. i imagine impeachment investigators do too. we reached out to the state department. haven't heard back. we'll let you know if that changes. as the president's trial gets under way in the senate, a key question is whether or not secretary mike pompeo will be called under oath to answer questions about what really is his very, very murky role in all of this. we'll be right back. americans come to lendingtree.com to compare and save on loans, credit cards and more! but with the new lending tree app you can see your full financial health, monitor your credit score, see your cash flow and find out how you can cut your monthly bills. download it now to see how much you can save. (music)

if you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ready to treat differently with a pill? otezla. show more of you.

>> man: what's my my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me. >> tech: hi, i'm adrian. >> man: thanks for coming. ...with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from managing inventory... to detecting and preventing threats... to scaling up your production. giving you a nice big edge over your competition. that's the power of edge-to-edge intelligence.

the government accountability office is the independent and nonpartisan federal agency tasked with helping congress with investigations. in november, the gao announced it would analyze whether the trump administration broke any laws when he decided to withhold $400 million in military aid to ukraine to pressure ukraine into

announcing investigations into joe biden. on the same day the senators took their oaths in the impeachment trial of president trump, the gao announced their decision and found yes, the trump administration did break the law when they withheld that money. the finding says in part, faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that congress has enacted into law. the withholding was not a programmatic delay. we therefore find that omb violated the law. mark sandy testified that two officials at omb resigned during the scandal in part because of their concern about whether holding up these funds to ukraine was illegal. it seems there concerns were justified. i would love to hear from them. it also means the republican talking opponent that no criminal laws were broken in this impeachment scandal, that is well and truly dead. or it should be. more ahead. stay with us.

if h us if (whistling) (whistling) women with metastatic we breast cancerers. standing in the struggle. hustling through the hurt. asking for science not sorrys. our time for more time - has come. living longer is possible and proven in women taking kisqali plus fulvestrant or a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor. kisqali is the only treatment in its class with proven overall survival results in 2 clinical trials. helping women live longer with hr+, her2-

metastatic breast cancer. kisqali was also significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant alone. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious liver problems and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness... yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. avoid grapefruit during treatment. kisqali is not approved for use with tamoxifen. it's our time. to continue to shine because we are the thrivers. ask your doctor about kisqali, the only treatment in its class proven to help women live longer in 2 clinical trials.

♪ ♪ everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. expedia. eh, not enough fiber- chocolate would be good- snacking should be sweet and simple. the delicious taste of glucerna gives you the sweetness you crave while helping you manage your blood sugar. glucerna. everyday progress while helping you manage your blood sugar. some things are too important to do yourself. ♪ get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today.

here ye, hear ye. the house of represent events is exhibiting to the senate of the united states articles of impeachment against donald john trump, president of the united states. >> senator sergeant at arm today

warning members of the senate if they break with decor rum by speaking they could face imprisonment. the oaths and rules and ceremonial were in the senate. they'll have by see a further e between house and the president. call in sick ahead of time. that does it for us. time for "the last word." >> rachel, you don't mean call in sick ahead of time. >> okay. >> let's put a public service announcement, she didn't mean that part. >> well -- >> rachel, another extraordinary hour. i have so many pieces of your interview here that we're going to rerun and analyze with the people we have here to analyze, joyce vance, john heilemann, performance laurence tribe is going to join us later. but it seems as though, it's very clear, your interview has created more momentum for witnesses in the senate trial. we've had a couple of senators now come out and say based on