lev parnas and igor fruman go to ukraine in february and meet with president poroshenko. they said you need to announce public investigations and, in return, there will be a state visit in the united states. and, guess what, it works. it all works, actually. >> how does it work? >> it's because lutsenko gives an interview in which he says we're going to start investigations in april. but it all goes wrong when the woman of the moment, marie yovanovitch, who testified today, is fired. she is fired, as we know, because lev parnas and igor fruman and rudy giuliani pushed for her to be fired. they had financial interests that they perceived her to be an obstacle to. once she's fired, it's like everybody finally woke up. >> what does that tell you in the new reporting? what does the new reporting tell us about what we should believe at this point? >> i think it's what's concerning about the new reporting is that it puts the president firmly in the lev parnas/igor fruman camp much earlier than the july 25th phone call when he gets on the phone and there's talk of a quid pro quo

. >> reporter: prosecutors allege lev parnas and igor fruman illegally funded republican politicians and campaigns with money from foreign nationals. in attempts to buy influence.

for what it's worth we don't know what information was learned after igor fruman agreed to home detentioncelet, information that his lawyer says will now convince the judge igor is a flight risk and he should be able to take that ankle monitor off, but we'll find out tomorrow at that hearing. i kind of can't wait. watch this space. g. i kind of can't wait watch this space and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com panera's new warm grain full of flavor, color,. full of- woo! full of good. so you can be too. try our new warm grain bowls today. panera. food as it should be. stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. >>> odd late breaking news num "the new york times" tonight. apparently last month president trump changed his official

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i became aware of an effort by rudy giuliani and others including his associates lev parnas and igor fruman to run a campaign to smear marie yovanovitch. >> while rudy giuliani was pushing conspiracy theories about the bidens and that ukraine was behind the meddling in 2016, parnas and fruman were using giuliani for their own scheme, to oust a u.s. ambassador getting in the way of their plans for a gas business. sound farfetched? ken mccallian has seen it before and it's about money. >> it's not about the bidens. it's not about a dnc server being hidden in ukraine. it's really about the money. it's a fight for control of naftogaz and resources. >> parnas hired giuliani for half a million dollars. a federal indictment alleged they also began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to republican causes, giving them incredible access to political fundraising events including at least ten with president trump. both have pleaded not guilty. "the washington post" even reports lev parnas told the president he needed to replace his u.s. ambassador to ukraine, and trump reportedly

increasingly aware of an effort by rudy giuliani and others, including his associates lev parnas and igor frumann a campaign to smear ambassador yovanovitch. >> reporter: while rudy giuliani was using parnas and fruman to help him push his conspiracy theories about the bidens and that ukraine was behind the election meddling in 2016, parnas and fruman were using giuliani for their own scheme, to oust a u.s. ambassador getting in the way of their plans for a gas business. sound far fetched? former federal prosecutor ken mccallan has seen it before in ukraine and says the house impeachment inquiry is exposing the real issue. money. >> it's really not just about the bidens, it's not about a dnc server being hidden in ukraine. it's really about the money. it's a fight for control of nafta gas and the natural gas resources. >> reporter: parnas and fruman may have begun their plan in 2018. parnas hired giuliani for half a million dollars, a federal indictment alleges they also began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to republican causes, giving them incredible access to politi

. >> an effort by rudy giuliani and others including his associates lev parnas and igor fruman to smear yovanovitch. >> the devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery. impeaching is a divisive thing. >> the m ares have really stuck together. it's a beautiful thing to see. >> we heard the one shot and then four after. and we just started running. >> there's the whole don't take my guns, don't take my life. >> this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world to this special edition of "new day" and of cnn's coverage of the impeachment hearings. just two hours from now, we will hear public testimony from the former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. here is a look right now live inside the hearing room as people prepare for this big day. so ambassador marie yovanovitch claims she was the target of a smear campaign allegedly targeted by giuliani. george kent told lawmakers about this very thing on live tv wednesday. >> i became alarmed as they bore fruit. to establish rapport. >> so stay tun

into this system walks rudy giuliani and his two associates, lev parnas and igor fruman, and they start talking to these corrupt prosecutors as described today in the testimony and elsewhere. and among other things, they start to undermine the former u.s. ambassador, marie yovanovich, who is testifying friday. she doesn't know why, but she suspects that there is some business interest at play. and then of course we find out that they have also been gathering this discredited information about joe and hunter biden for rudy giuliani to use to bring back to president trump to try to help him in his 2020 campaign. >> so remind us what kind of story yovanovitch can tell on friday. she was rather blindsided by this development. >> she was completely blindsided. and it's worth remembering -- so she's worked for three presidents, bush, obama, and trump. and she was in ukraine and she was a very vocal critic of this corrupt system in ukraine. she was trying to change it. she was trying to bring the rule of law, and ukrainian officials came up to her and said, you should watch your back. she didn

last month his associates, lev parnas and igor fruman were arrested as they were trying to leave theand later indicted on charges of using a shell company to funnel campaign donations to a pro-trump super pac. shelby holiday broke this story from "the wall street journal." john fillp directed a film on rudy giuliani. thank you so much for being with me and congratulations on the scoop. what do we know so far about the investigation? >> we reported various subpoenas were sent to different people that had relationships with rudy giuliani as well as his associates, lev parnas and igor fruman. this subpoenas indicate a very broad investigation at this point into a variety of possible charges, money laundering, foreign lobbying violations, wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud united states. they are the clearest sign yet the prosecutors are looking not just at rudy giuliani but his consulting business. that payment was made to giuliani partners so they could be scrutinizing that. >> we should note giuliani says he hasn't heard from prosecutors yet. >> correct. >> is that an omino

of course, also including lev parnas and igor fruman. reporting by vicky ward, we've learned both the men had a meeting with the president and j rudolph giuliani last year at the hannukkah party where they described what was a secret mission to pressure the ukrainian government to pressure vice president joe biden and his son hunter. >> days later we're told that he insinuated to people that he clearly believed he had been given a special assignment by the president. some sort of james bond mission. the white house did not respond to repeat requests for comment on. this reporting, steve hall is back with us now. first let's get to the role of these two men. they are now under criminal indictment. they've been charged and arrested as they were trying to heave the country on a one-way ticket. the washington dulles airport. the president entrusted these two now criminals, or alleged criminals, with a kind of mission separate from stated u.s. policy in ukraine. tell us the significance of that. the broader picture here. >> yeah. this is an e

>>no equivocation on this one he doesn't know them lev parnas and igor fruman us citizens who did business in ukraine associates of rudy giuliani and apparently frequent photo powers of the president. the president says he takes a lot of pictures with lot of people. but this many could fill an album. >>house impeachment investigators released the final closed door interview transcripts from the state department and the office of management and budget as of yesterday. mark sandy was initially part o freezing $400 million in us security aid to ukrai that process was taken over by a political appointee to sign the documents delaying the aid. the state department official philip reeker testified he was unaware of thpush for ukraine to announce investigations into president trump's political rivals. he also said top officials under secretary of state mike pompeo had blocked an effort to release a statement of support for ousted us ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovich. >>for your help toight americans are having fewer babies the cters for disease control and prevention say the number of birth

increasingly aware of an effort by rudy giuliani and others, including his associates, lev parnas and igor frumanun a campaign to smear ambassador yovanovitch. >> reporter: while rudy giuliani was using parnas and fruman to help him push his conspiracy theories about the bidens and that ukraine was behind the election meddling in 2016, parnas and fruman were using giuliani for their own scheme, to oust a u.s. ambassador, getting in the way of their plans for a gas business. sound far-fetched? former federal prosecutor ken mccallian has seen it before in ukraine and says the house impeachment inquiry is exposing the real issue. money. >> it's really not just about the bidens, it's not about a dnc server being hidden in ukraine. it's really about the money. it's a fight for control of naftogaz and the natural resources. >> reporter: parnas and fruman may have began their plan in 2018. parnas hired giuliani for $500,000. a federal indictment alleges they also began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to republican causes, giving them incredible access to political fund-raising

new york after his two business associates, my favorite characters in this drama lev parnas and igor frumaned at the airport last month with one way tickets. we know giuliani has been in business with them, serving as the president's lawyer and kind of shadow secretary of state while also collecting cash and advocating on the behalf of god knows who in his foreign consulting business, a blurring of lines between public and private interest that has helped throw the trump presidency into the worst crisis its ever faced. so how does a man turn into this? quote, over the past 18 months giuliani has violated the unwritten rule of american public life, that you can pursue money or political power but not both at once. she's here with me now. it's a great piece. let's talk about the business side. what is rudy's business? i actually don't even understand. what is the guy doing to make a living? >> basically if you look at a map it's like where's rudy? he says he's been over 80 countries, 150 trips. and he's basically leveraged his law and order kind of brand the same way trump branded hotels to c

igor fruman's team has been quiet.hey could also be doing things behind the scenes but not telegraphing it. it's hard to know at this point where this is going to shake out. >> another story, i understand cnn has learned that david pecker, the head of the national enquirer, close friend of the prrkts spoke with the distriman district attorney's office. >> they're investigating the hush money payments made to silence the two women who alleged affairs with the president. there was the federal investigation. now the manhattan da's office is looking to see if any state laws were violated in the process of those payments. so they interviewed david pecker last month. david pecker is a longtime friend of the president's. he's done these catch and kill deals. he was involved in the payments to these two women either directly or indirectly. he has a lot of knowledge about what the strategy was. so prosecutors have met with him at the end of october. they are expected to meet with him again. he did have a cooperation agreement w

when asked to explain, she mentioned giuliani, his now indicted associates lev parnas and igor fruman and ex ukrainian prosecutor saying they were interested in having a different ambassador at post >>> there is also this. yovanovitch testified that she asked the u.s. ambassador gordon sondland on how to handle attacks from sean hannity and don jr. and told lawmakers we need to go big or go home and need to tweet out there that you support the president and all these are lice a, lies and ever else and it was advice i didn't see how i could implement in my role as an ambassador as a foreign service officer. another reference to hannity. his attacks apparently went from fox news, prime time to the top of the state department. yovanovitch said she was told the secretary or someone around him would call hannity, to see if he had proof of the allegations against her. and if not, to stop it. hannity claims the call never happened. >> so here's exactly what the president said about the former ambassador when asked by nbc's kirsten welker. >> was marie yovanovitch the target of a smear campai

. >>> what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman -- >> i don't know those gentlemen's possible i have a picture with them because i have a picture with everybody. i have a picture with everybody here. but somebody said there may be a picture or something at a fund raiser or somewhere. i have pictures with everybody. >> have you talked with them -- >> i don't know if there's anybody i don't have pictures with. i don't know about them. i don't know what they do. but i don't know. maybe they were clients of rudy. you would have to ask rudy. >> i don't know anything about the crimes that they commit for my personal lawyer rudy when they go to ukraine and -- i don't know -- i'm in pictures with them. we hug. they know my -- i don't know them. so that, that, that moment where the president sought to distance himself from those two men, lev parnas and igor fruman might not have worked for donald trump. they are associates of rudy giuliani and their work with him, assisting him in efforts to dig up dirt on the bidens lies at the heart of donald trump's impeachment. parnas an

that donald trump has claimed that he does not know him, even though lev and his partner igor, igor fruman have photographic evidence that they have met donald trump. we begin tonight with the first public release of deposition transcripts in the impeachment inquiry, the most important thing in the transcripts of the depositions. most important thing in these depositions in the impeachment inquiry that were released today is that there is no defense of donald trump in those transcripts, not one word of defense. the republican members of the investigating committees who love to play tough guy in the hallway in front of the microphones were timid little sheep in those depositions. tough guy jim jordan was in the room. trump worshiper mark meadows was in the room, and they couldn't come up with a single word to put in those transcripts released today that was helpful to donald trump. donald trump might not have brought mark meadows to a world series game and to the ultimate fighting spectacle in madison square garden this weekend if donald trump knew that mark meadows did and said absolutely

giuliani's consulting firm and a pair of giuliani's associates, the already indicted lev parnas and igor frumand then today we got this from "the new york times" and "the washington post." both papers reporting that while rudy giuliani was working to find dirt on the bidens for the president, he was also pursuing business interests with ukrainian officials. they focused on a draft proposal calling for ukraine's top prosecutor to pay giuliani at least $200,000 to represent him, and another proposal calling for the ukrainian ministry of justice to retain giuliani's firm for $300,000. now, giuliani told the papers he rejected both offers. it's hard to see how this has been a fun thanksgiving week for rudy giuliani. yesterday, the president tomorrow a former fox news host that whatever giuliani was doing in ukraine, he wasn't doing it at trump's bidding. meanwhile, mr. giuliani is apparently scrambling to patch things up with the president, especially over the matter of insurance. >> i've seen things written, like, he's going to throw me under the bus. when i say that, i say, he isn't, but i have i

two of giuliani's henchmen, lev parnas and igor fruman, have already been indicted for their role inscheme. you remember these two guys? the guys who look like characters from the soviet version of "guess who? [ laughter ] now you might remember that these guys had at least ten, ten separate interactions with trump. and they told associates that trump had sent them on a secret mission to dig up dirt on joe biden in ukraine i'm sorry, but these are the guys you want on a secret mission? yeah, i mean, they'll blend right in as long as the mission it to infiltrate a convention of queens building supers in fact, they specifically said they'd been given a special assignment by trump, which they told people was some sort of james bond mission it's really great that trump came up with a james bond mission and he assigned it to two guys who look like they'd immediately get thrown off a speed boat by james bond [ laughter ] these guys look like the mugshots that would come up during one of bond's briefings, you know like at the beginning of the movie, when m is going through a list of known s

president trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, and two giuliani associates, lev parnas and igor fruman. they pleaded not guilty to campaign finance charges last month. now in addition to today's public hearing, there's a closed session. the embassy staffer who says he overheard a cell phone conversation between president trump and eu ambassador gordon sondland about investigations is expected to come here and testify behind closed doors. the "associated press" is reporting that a second embassy staffer also overheard that call. anne-marie? >> very interesting stuff. it's going to be an interesting day. natalie brand in washington, thank you. >>> so "cbs evening news" managing editor norah o'donnell will anchor a special report on the public impeachment hearing. we expect it to begin at 9:00 a.m., 8:00. you can watch continuing coverage on our streaming network, cbsn. >>> president trump is asking the u.s. supreme court to block a subpoena for his tax returns. mr. trump's private lawyers asked the high court yesterday to block a manhattan grand jury's request for eight years of his tax

. >> rudy giuliani with his former associates, lev parnas and igor fruman. the transcript that was just released is more evidence, congressman, that top u.s. diplomats knew that the dealings between the white house and ukraine were, in their words, suspicious. there was relatively little direct interaction with the president himself. is that a potential obstacle for democrats in their investigation? >> i don't believe it is because all roads lead to this president. i don't believe anybody else within this administration has acted within a manner that would be as consistent as his behavior where he's always trying to protect himself. plus there are other references in some of the testimony that the request, that the order is coming directly from the president. so this is donald trump's white house. and he has made it very clear that he's running every aspect of it. so, he can't escape responsibility as some might try to suggest, that it wasn't him. it's him. some of the defenders of the president are applying some unbelievably bizarre logic. i saw your earlie

but he sure did take a lot of pictures with indicted ukraine connected businessmen lev parnas and igor frumanth trump's personal lawyer and friend, rudy giuliani. they also represented themselves as part of the president's only legal team in an official letter to congress. lev parnas' new attorney told reuters that parnas is prepared to comply with requests for records and testimony from congressional impeachment investigators. keep in mind it can be hard to keep the president's indicted associates clear. in fact one of his oldest political associates and closest confidants went on trial today. that's coming up, next. that's ct ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we need someone to lean on ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we needed somebody to lean on ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ all we need is someone to lean on ♪ and my lack of impulse control,, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! wh

igor fruman and lev parnas were arrested at dulles airport with one-way tickets to europe.hey had had lunch with giuliani hours earlier. one of the two is cooperating with the house impeachment inquiry and claiming to have had a clandestine meeting with trump about ukraine at a hanukkah party. not true says giuliani. >> he's trying to make himself important. we never had that meeting with the president. he just made it up. >> reporter: the former mayor has a reputation for bluster, as former national security adviser john bolton's former deputy testified this past week. >> in the course of that discussion said rudy giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up. >> did you understand what he meant by that? >> i did, actually. >> reporter: giuliani shot back at bolton during this interview. >> for john to say i'm a hand grenade, well, then he's an atomic bomb. >> reporter: giuliani denied reports he's profiting from ukraine policy saying he has no financial interest there whatsoever. he insists everything he's done in ukraine has been to defend the president.

the president's private attorney working together with these two others, lev parnas and igor fruman,now. and rudy judging judging giulia investigation. >> if you are a republican, you want to keep it to the phone call. president trump saying read the transcript. but if you are a democrat, you want to say that the ouster of this ambassador really was the beginning of this, what they say, is this bribery scheme. this move by the president to use roughly $400 million to get the president of ukraine to deliver on announcing an investigation into his political rivalries. and so giuliani is key to that. she has essentially a front row seat to this scheme sort of unfolding in her -- alarm bells ringing as you saw with bill taylor. he figures out, something is going wrong here and she, obviously, in this position as a career diplomat for like 30 years. so she has a sense of how things are supposed to be and then all of a sudden, something else starts to happen and she's hearing from the ukrainians that she has to watch her back. she's sort of nervous about what's being, you know, what's happ

rudy giuliani donald trump's personal tourney and 2 individuals now indicted who worked with him igor fruman and let parness. fruman parness and others who would come to include the president's own son don junior, promoted to smear campaign against her based on false allegations. at the state department there was an effort to push back. to obtain a statement of support from secretary pompeo. but those efforts failed when it became clear the president trump want to her. some of argued that a president has the ability to nominate or remove any investor he wants that they serve at the pleasure of the president. and that is true. the question before us is not whether donald trump could recall an american ambassador with a stellar reputation for fighting corruption in ukraine. but why would he want to. why did rudy giuliani want her gone. and why did donald trump. and why would dobut for that someone blew the whistle. ambassador yovanovitch was serving our nation's interest and fighting corruption in ukraine. she was considered an obstacle to the further its of the president's personal and politi

parnas has switched his representation, but igor, his buddy, mr. fruman, he has stuck with paul manafort's lawyers for his legal representation. that itself is a fascinating and as yet untold subplot here. the way the president's imprisoned former campaign chairman seems to be right at the heart of so many tendrils of this impeachment scandal. but last night you might remember here on the show we talked about this interesting filing that was made with a federal court in new york, the court handling lev and igor's case. in that filing igor's lawyer wrote to the judge in the case because the lawyer said he had new information of which he wanted to try to persuade the judge that his client should no longer have these onerous bail conditions. specifically he no longer wanted his client to be under house arrest or nor have to keep wearing a gps monitoring device on his ankle. igor and his counsel had agreed to those exact bail conditions only a week ago. so it's intriguing, sort of weird they were writing the judge last night already saying they want relief fr

igor fruman would testify to that and for some reason lev has got himself into a grandiose thing or maybe his lawyer-- his lawyer is saying these things. why a lawyer says things. ed: is he saying that to get off the hook because he's indicted-- >> he's not going to get off the hook by lying. devin nunes says he didn't meet with shokin. if he did, there would have been nothing wrong with it. he should have met with shokin. shokin had evidence massive corruption in the ukraine covered up by the ambassador. could being covered up by the state department and not being investigated by the fbi or the justice department. he had every write -- right to talk to him and his duty-- i have no idea why this lawyer is creating these additional problems for lev. they're not problems for me because there's so many witnesses and documents to prove he's lying and that's why i hate to see-- i do this for a living and i hate to see a lawyer do this to somebody. ed: you say it's not going to hurt you. are you afraid, mr. mayor that you could be indicted? >> oh, wow, how long have you known me, ed? >> i've ne

increasingly aware of an effort by rudy giuliani and others, including his assoctes lev parnas and igor frumanon edge and other ofcials at the us embassy in keefe. the chief agitator is on the ukrainian side of this effort where some of those se corrupt former prosecutors i had encountered particularly yuriy lutsenko in viktor shokin they are now peddling false information in order to extrt revenge against those who expose their miscouct, including us diplats, ukrainian anti-corruption officials and reform minded civil society grps in ukraine. during the te spring and summer of 2019 i became alarmed as those efforts bore fruit. they led to the ouster of investor yovanovitch and hampered us efforts to establi rapport with the news. let's get ministrations in ukraine. in mid august, it became clear to me that giuliani's efforts to jenna politically motivated investigations. we're now infecting us engagement th ukraine leveraging president's lewinsky's desire for a white house meetg. and alwa have been conditionality placed on our sovereign loan guarantees for ukraine conditns include anti-corrup

none more interesting than rudy giuliani's ukrainian buddies, lev parnas and igor fruman-- a.k.a.le dee and tweedle "gonna take your thumb." on friday, we learned that parnas has some dirt on ranking member of the house intelligence committee, and man seen here with his only friend, chair, devin nunes. according to his lawyer, parnas is ready to testify to congress that, in late 2018, nunes flew to vienna to meet with disgraced former ukrainian prosecutor, viktor shokin, to get dirt on biden. so, according to parnas, the top republican investigating whether trump tried to get dirt on biden, tried to get dirt on biden. it reminds me of the children's classic "nancy drew and the case of the man murdered by nancy drew." ( cheers and applause ) now, "the daily beast" and cnn broke this story. when cnn asked nunes for comment he said, "to be perfectly clear, i don't acknowledge any questions from you in this lifetime or the next lifetime." wow. ( audience reacts ) did you hear that, cnn? in his next lifetime. you will not be getting any answers from nunes' now or when he is reincarnate

to investigate the bidens-- specifically, the role of rudy giuliani's associates, lev parnas and igor frumane ursula's eels of the ukraine investigation. ( laughter ) ( applause ). >> jon: oh, wow! wow! ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: worth it. 100%. now, trump has denied knowing who these two guys are, which is odd, because we just learned that parnas and fruman were guests last year at the white house's annual hanukkah party, or as trump calls it: (as trump) "little hat candle christmas. ( laughter ) ♪ oh, candle christmas visitors, why are your hats so tiny?" ♪ ( laughter )utev and ig got v dure pa parnas and fruman slipped out to have a private meeting with the president and giuliani-- though, i know, it sounds bad. though, it is a hanukkah party. maybe they went off to play a high-stakes game of dreidel. (as trump) "this is the first casino i've been to where they don't judge me for eating the coins." ( laughter ) but some people-- ( applause ) >> jon: recollections, recollections. >> stephen: "come on!" but it might not have been so innocent after all, because after he met with tru

increasingly aware of an effort by rudy giuliani and others, including his associates lev parnas and igor fruman campaign to smear yovanovitch. >> when secretary pompeo askedny go back to kyiv, i wanted to say y but it was not an easy decision. the former ambassador masha yovanovitch has been treated poorly caught in political machinations in kyiv and washington. i feared those problems were still present. >> in fact, marie yovanovitch was quite blunt in the closed door testimony. her transcript revealing she felt tlented by the president's associates as they worked to undermine her and have her removed. she recounted how a ukrainian official told her to, quote, watch my back. she was encouraged by gordon sondland to praise trump. sondland suggesting she tweet praise at the president over twitter to save her job. and then when the attacks against her ramped up within the right wing media, particularly from fox news host sean hannity, that's when yovanovitch said she was told that secretary of state mike pompeo or someone around him at the state department planned to actually call sean hannity an

december, of 201 somebody should remind lev there were five witnesses including his -- his good friend igor fruman all say categorically untrue democrats made significant headlines out of the fact parnas was arrested and that he was you know friendly with rudy giuliani. is he turning out to be damaging to the president or not? lev parnas. >> so not certain whether or not lev parnas will be damaging to the president however does appear lev parnas could be damaging to rudy giuliani personally, in regards to the -- the conversation that you played about rudy giuliani the hanukkah party. cnn reported this month that rudy giuliani lev parnas i go ignore fruman also arrested in conjonion with lev parnas recently they alleging that cnn alleged reported three melt with president at hanukkah party december 2018 cnn reporting not based on word of lev parnas it is based on two people acquaintances of lev parnas important to make ib when it comes to whoofrnt lev parnas is actually providing information against president or president's attorney however there is a subsequent story from cnn, furthered by daily b

on the bidens in ukraine is ready to cooperate with congressional investigators, lev parnas and igor fruman trying to persuade ukrainian officials to investigate joe biden and his son hunter, the two ukrainians were arrested last month on campaign finance charges and rejected a request for documents and testimony from house democrats but tonight he will answer the subpoena to the best of his ability and the reason for his change of heart he, quote, was deeply disturbed to learn in jail while waiting bail that the president was disavowing and claiming not to know him. they were involved in an effort to remove the us ambassador to ukraine which we learned more about today after the house intelligence committee release transcripts from several closed-door depositions including the former us ambassador to ukraine who told lawmakers that late last year ukrainian officials warned her if giuliani was in touch with the former top prosecutor they had plans and they were going to, you know, do things including to me. yavanovitch is one of the witnesses who has agreed to testify. today another four wh

last month his associates lev parnas and igor fruman arrested trying to leave the country and later indicted charges using a shell company to funnel campaign donations to a pro-trump superpac. following the twists and turns in rudy giuliani's story and with me, profiled rudy giuliani for "vanity fair." great have you both on. start with the reporting. tell me more what this means what they're looking at and all of these seem to point to him? >> the subpoena is requesting information about any communications and business dealings the person who received, had done with lev and igor and also asking for communications with rudy giuliani and his security consulting business giuliani partners and goes further. asks for any documents or agreements that relate to any actual or potential payments to giuliani and his firm which tells you prosecutors are examining the money flow. what sort of business relationships exist with a number of people. one subpoena we've seen. we know dozens more have gone out. the fbi agents have knocked and people's doors. one glimpse into it and gives a sense they're tryin

she testified having powerful adversaries working against her in ukraine, rudy giuliani and igor fruman and parnas. >> over the course of 2018 and 2019, i became increasingly aware of an effort of rudy giuliani including his associates parnas and fruman to run the campaign to smear ambassador yovanovitch and other officials at the u.s. embassy and kiev. >> ambassador yovanovitch had been treated poorly. >> bloomberg news reports that rudy giuliani is now under scrutiny from federal prosecutor in manhattan for finance violation and failure to register as a foreign agent. tomorrow house investigators will hear from another witness, david holmes. he's the guy who apparently over heard trump on a cell phone call with the eu ambassador and a restaurant in kiev. he's scheduled to testify in close sessions tomorrow. the associated press reports a second u.s. official was also able to hear the president on that cell phone call. nbc news had not spoken anyone who confirmed that particular reporting. next week of firsthand knowledge of trump's conduct will testify publicly and including alexander

lev parnas and igor fruman. associates of rudy giuliani. i think they were clients of his and that made sense to somebody, but where they were trying to make money and they might have thought that ambassador yovanovitch was going to be an impediment to their efforts to do whatever. >> there's a lot we can learn about what they were doing in this whole situation. including again what rudy giuliani was doing. the person that seems to be responsible for their presence in this situation is the president. and he didn't talk about that. also didn't talk about the president's conduct. may be helpful to remember two questions that were repeated time and again during the watergate hearings. what did the president know and when. he seems to have been b in the situation for a significant period of time trying to create a shadow of government that was going to take care of ukraine apparently to help his re-election. >> althoughgloria, the shadow government as i didn't mean recorden pointed out, consisted of three individuals who had been confirmed by t

increasingly aware of an effort by rudy giuliani and others including his associates lev parnas and igor fruman to run a campaign to smear ambassador yovanovitch. >> the former ambassador has been treated poorly. >> bill taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state george kent kicking off the first public impeachment hearings by defending their colleague marie yovanovitch. the ousted ambassador to ukraine is the next to testify. she defied the trump administration and appeared before lawmakers last month after the state department tried to block her testimony. in it, she levelled stunning allegations about a shadow ukraine policy led by rudy giuliani, the president's personal lawyer. she called it, quote, a partisan game. a game that would eventually result in her own removal. >> she was sworn as ambassador, u.s. ambassador to ukraine in 2016. she was unexpectedly recalled from her post in may, months earlier than expected. >> fiona hill testified that the ousting of yovanovitch, a well-respected career diplomat was a turning point. >> that was a politically motivated move. it was orchestrate

asked whether that's info on giuliani or about his now indicted associates, lev parnas and igor fruman. everything is connected was his quote, which is true. parnas and fruman needed giuliani to help them to get access and to help them to deal with this u.s. ambassador marie yovanovich because they all wanted her out because she stood in their way of getting the investigations they wanted. and in the case of mr. parnas and fruman, to get the naftogaz. on the flip side, giuliani used those two to look for biden. we'll see what it leads to, and we'll see what it will spawn in terms of more conspiracy theories about ukraine meddling because that seems to be the defense du jour. that's french. now, remember, giuliani has denied wrongdoing, but the federal prosecutors are all over it. thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with the upgrade, laura coates, starts right now. >> is that french too? upgrade? i can't -- >> that's a fact is what that is. >> i'll take it. i don't speak french, but i like the way that sounds. thank you for having me on your, you know, network today. >> i like it. cuo

lev parnas and igor fruman.he president says he takes a lot of pictures with a lot of people, but this many could fill an album. here with me is congressman greg r gregory meeks. the president saying he did not direct rudy giuliani to go on this mission to ukraine to dig up dirt. >> we've got clear testimony from strong diplomats, patriots who are there just because they want to help their country that contradict that, that said that they worked with rudy giuliani because it was at the direction of the president of the united states of america. and what the president is doing just as you just showed, he lies, he lies and he lies and then he throws people under the bus. it's who he was. it's who he was before he was president. and now they go back and they try to protect this guy. but the camera of history is rolling and the lies that they're saying and how they're trying to protect this guy right now is going to be refuted in that history simply by bringing up the videotape and listening to these witnesses who a

kirsten powers to you, lev parnasen a igor fruman thoos these guys are characters.udy giuliani and the president pictures. but the lawyer says he has information that devin nunes is tide up in in as well. how do you see this playing out? >> well, i mean, i think it's like what jeffrey said it dpentds on what they have and can deliver. they also claim they at a dinner with the president had told him -- they were the ones really driving the smear campaign against marie yovanovitch and they had told him she was working against his interests. so, i mean, maybe if they did in fact have recordings of something that could be meaningful. i don't think -- well, i want to say two things one to david's point. i completely disagree about giuliani. i think trump would throw him under the bus in a split second and wouldn't think twice about it. i don't think however that even throwing him under the bus gets trump out of this because there is too much evidence showing that he was driving this bus, basically. >> sure. >> but i think he would absolutely do it. >> berman can you refr

. >> an effort by rudy giuliani and others including his associates lev parnas and igor fruman to smearestimony corroborated evidence of bribery. impeaching is a divisive thing. >> the m ares have really stuck together. it's a beautiful thing to see. >> we heard the one shot and then four after. and we just started running. >> there's the whole don't take my guns, don't take my life.

igor fruman's attorney denied it. they reported their actions to the u.s. embassy in kiev.is cooperating with the federal investigation which cnn reports is focusing on the actions of president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani. >> hi, mr. giuliani. >> reporter: a source familiar with the matter said federal prosecutors are investigating giuliani's possible business ties to parnas, fruman, and their company global producers. earlier this month giuliani vehemently denied any wrongdoing. >> the reality is anything i've done is totally legal. >> favarov said he never met with giuliani but the two men who came to him with a corrupt plan used their association with rudy giuliani as proof they could carry it out. >> did they mention rudy giuliani? >> yes. >> as their conduit? >> yes, as one of the channels of communication and getting the right information across to the troublemakers. >> they said they could remove the ambassador? >> i find it hard to digest. >> reporter: what's at stake is much bigger. russia, he says, is hoping ukraine will fail and that russian style and