guiliani. david holmes, the u.s. political counselor in kiev, said guiliani, a private lawyer, was taking a direct role in ukrainian diplomacy. bad enough that the president ordered u.s. diplomats to, quote, talk to rudy about ukraine. the scheme got worse. the evidence shows that ukrainian officials also came to recognize the important role of mr. guiliani. on july 10th, 2019, andriy yermak, the top aide to president zelensky, sent a text to ambassador volker about rudy giuliani. in that text, the ukrainian official said this, quote, thank you for meeting and your clear and very logical position will be great meet with you before my departure and discuss. i feel that the key for many things is rudy, and i ready to talk with him at any time. let me repeat that. quote, the key for many things is rudy. so the president used his personal agent to conduct his scheme with ukraine. they were in frequent contact. everyone, white house officials and ukrainian officials knew they had no choice but to de

guiliani, contacted mr. guiliani and said he had been in touch with the ukrainian president. >> that he had conditiveyed the message and, in fact, the ukrainian government had agreed to make that announcement. secretary of energy rick perry denied playing any role in this scheme. but he did crash out of the cabinet just as the scandal surfaced. it was october 16th when the "wall street journal" reported that, in fact, secretary perry did call rudy guiliani 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 that he would not comply with a subpoena in the impeachment investigation. whether he would comply now with a subpoena to testify to the senate trial 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 telling him tha

guiliani to president-elect zelenski, i am counsel to donald j. trump. just to be precise, i represent him as a citizen not president of the united states. duties of president and private citizen are not the same. so he is making a very clear point that he's not representing the interests of the united states at large, the american national security, he's representing the interests of donald j. trump. >> that was always a point. >> that was always made? >> he always made it clear, he doesn't represent, wherever we went, i don't represent the government, i represent the president of the united states. >> so anything rudy guiliani wanted the government of ukraine to do, that wasn't official u.s. policy, that was a personal benefit to the president of the united states? >> well, you know when i was doing it, i thought it was all in the same. obviously now, i can see with the situation the way it is, it was strictly for him, but again i thought he was the, our leader. he's the chief, he's the president and it was all about 2020 to make sure he had ano

scores mayor guiliani 4, and mr. schiff, 0. in this trial, in this moment, rudy guiliani is a minor player.

>> not only rudy guiliani, victoria and joe they were all best friend. mean, barr was attorney general barr was basically on the team. >> well, last night a spokesperson for attorney general barr k5u8d parnas' -- called parnas's allegations 100% false. peter it bothers me when public officials play the role of flax when you have one of these cases. i don't know why somebody in the justice department has the job of putting out something as nonsensical, he was not in the loop. they are covering for somebody in not a criminal case but certainly a scandal. public officials doing this for their living. >> yeah. right. i think what we've seen unfortunately in the last few years is that there is no sense of the justice department being a neutral actor anymore. the president. thinks the justice department ought to be his function on his behalf basically as much as the country's. he's, you know, repeatedly crossed over lines, other presidents saw there, so i think that the problem is, there is credibility issues when you have a justice department statement at thi

guiliani's request served as a quid pro quo.assador sondland testified that the president never told him there was any sort of a condition for a meeting with president zelensky. why, then, did he think there was one? in his own words the ambassador could only repeat what he heard from ambassador volker who heard that from guiliani. he didn't even hear that from ambassador volker himself. ambassador volker testified u e unequivocally, there was no connection between the meeting and the announcements of investigations. this is from volker's deposition testimony. question, did president trump ever withhold a meeting or delay a meeting with president zelensky until the investigations that you just described. answer. the answer to the question is no, if you want a yes or no answer, but the reason the answer is no is because we did have trouble scheduling a meeting but there was no linkage like that. >> question, you said there was no linkage between the delay in the oval office meeting between president trump and mr. zelensky and the

where guiliani was culminating about yovanovitch again why she had to go. the reasons that's important not that it places mick mulvaney there. mulvaney told associates he would step away whenever the president was talking to guiliani so the president could preserve his attorney/client privilege. this completely contradicts that. bolton's key assertion the president tied this money directly to something he wanted in terms of investigations, you know, could undercut a key aspect of the president's defense. what i suspect the president's folks are going to say is this wasn't about announcing an investigation. this was different. this was about, you know, other aspects of this investigation. >> that he wanted. in the president's conversation, it appears to have all just been lumped into one and that is generally how the president talks. bolton has had a very well known beef with pompeo, with mulvaney. i suspect that's going to be pointed to as well. but at the end of the day, this is why when you have a white house and a president who often do not tell the trut

basically yovanovitch was the subject of a smear campaign by guiliani and was abruptly pushed out byecause they knew she would be an obstacle to their corrupt scheme she's a career foreign service officer whose credibility is unquestioned by anyone in either party. so naturally as she was testifying trump decided to attack her >> the president attacking former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch during her public testimony tweeting in part, "everywhere marie yovanovitch went turned bad. she started off in somalia how did that go? then fast forward to ukraine where the new ukrainian president spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. >> everywhere she went turned bad? [ laughter ] you've gone bankrupt six times and botched everything from casinos to your charity to your dumbass busiss you made a vodka so bad no one would -- vodka. how do you screw up vodka? only trump [ cheers and applause only trump could take something -- could take something that's supposed to be flavorless and make it taste like [ bleep ] [ laughter ] but the worst part is trump tweete

guiliani under the bus. that letter makes clear that guiliani in his own words is acting at the behest and with the knowledge and consent of the president. there is no fobbing this off on others. the president was the architect of this scheme. these documents are important. we have only obtained a very small sample of the universe of documents that the president is withholding. if mr. mcconnell wants to follow the clinton model, as he keeps professing, all of the documents were provided before the trial. those documents should be demanded by the senators. if the senators want to see the evidence, they should demand to see the documents and not participate in an effort to stonewall or cover up the president's misconduct. >> witnesses were deposed. >> as the speaker mentions, the other profound distinction between now and the clinton case is that the witnesses that the house managers sought in the clinton trial had already testified. their testimony was known. so the question for the senators then was do we wa

guiliani? certain, like i said, there was other people doing like this op research or whatever. >> research. >> i don't know what you call it. but it was coming from different sides. yeah. >> given that interaction that you just described with congressman nunes and his aide mr. harvey, does it strike you as unusual or inappropriate that devon nunes would be one of the lead investigators on this scandal, he's obviously the top republican on that committee? >> i was in shock when i was watching the hearings when i saw devon nunes and derek harvey was in back sitting. i texted my attorney, i can't believe this was happening. >> because? >> because they were involved in getting all this stuff from biden. derek harvey had several interviews, skype interviews i set up with different prosecutors like the anti-corruption prosecutor of ukrai ukraine, kulik was one of the major guys had this biden stuff. so it's hard to see them lie like that when you know it's like that, it's scary, because you know he

guiliani's activities in may 2019 when mr. guiliani was planning his visit to kiev.quote, the president called him as the plane was still taxiing down the runway. president trump asked his lawyers, quote, what did you get? guiliani answered, more than you can imagine. even as president trump faced impeachment in the house of representatives, he was coordinating with his personal attorney on the ukraine scheme. the president asked rudy, what did you get? the evidence also shows mr. guiliani and the president were in frequent contact. during the investigation and in response to a lawful subpoena, the house got call records. they show contacts, not content, between guiliani, the white house and other people involved in the president's scheme. for example, on april 23rd, rudy giuliani learned president trump had decided to fire ambassador yovanovitch. on that day, according to phone records, guiliani had an 8:28 call with a white house number. let's look at what happened the next day on april 24th. guiliani was again in repeated contact with the white house. for example,

. >> this as new evidence emerges from a guiliani associate. >> president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all of my movements. >> my guests this morning, senator minority whip democrat dick durbin of illinois and republican senator david purdue of georgia. >>> plus, elizabeth warren's refusal to shake hands with bernie sanders. >> i think you called me a liar on national tv. >> let's not do it right now. >> has stirred fear in the left that this threatens the chances of securing a democratic nominee. >>> and the nbc news county-to-county project. >> you have to speak to us. >> but i've been hearing people will change and get behind the nominee no matter what. >> we talk to african-american voters in milwaukee about 2020. joining me for insight and analysis are hugh hewitt, formed maryland congresswoman donna edwards, and the authors of a new book on president trump, phil rucker, white house bureau chief for "the washington post" and carol leonnig, also of "the washington post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, t

there's a direct link between guiliani and the president. it also destroys some of the president's core defense that rudy was running rogue or wa that was actually about actual anti-corruption work. it also lays a predicate for a new investigation, kate. a u.s. ambassador has been threatened by the president and all of his men to date. now we have new evidence that an associate of the president, someone that's been seen with the president, was potentially surveilling a u.s. ambassador. all diplomats are afforded protection. under the vienna convention we have a bureau of diplomatic security. it is unclear, we don't know if there has already been an investigation into threats against marie yovanovitch. what's entirely enclosuclear, t is if an investigation hasn't started yet, it certainly needs to start now. we've seen representative engle call for documents from the diplomatic security bureau for that very reason. based upon all of that, it raises a real issue which is that the president himself has been a direct threat to a person serving o

this is a letter from rudy guiliani to the newly elected president of ukraine asking for a meeting, quoten my capacity as personal counsel to president trump and with his knowledge and consent. remember, guiliani is not a diplomat and had no role on the administration but already working on digging up dirt on the bidens. then his associate, lev parnas was texting to someone, robert hyde, who appears to be watching and monitoring yovanovitch. they are moving her tomorrow. she's talked to three people. her phone is off. computer is off. he then goes on to say next slide, she is next to the embassy, not in the embassy. that speaks to the level of surveillance he was carrying out if that was indeed true. he also appears to offer parnas something nefarious, saying, they, we don't know who they are referring to, willing to help if you would like a price guess you can do anything in ukraine with money, what i was told. his lawyers said hyde had a dubious mental state. after seeing in that transcript what he said in the july 25th phone call with zelensky. take a listen. >> what did you think when

made directly to them or were overheard in other conversations and statements made through rudy guilianioborate exactly what the president intended when he had that conversation with president zielinski. this is classically the way prosecutors build their cases and i don't want to make the analogy too close because this is a political process impeachment, and it's not part of a judicial process that we are used to in this country when it comes to actual criminal law. >> so on that note, and you led me right into my question to you, the main takeaway argument that the president's lawyers are making is that it needs to be a violation of the criminal code, it needs to be a crime for a president to be impeached. that is different from what one of the president's attorneys now in this trial, alan dershowitz said back in 1998 during the clinton impeachment situation. listen to him now and then. >> that will be paraphrasing the successful argument made by justice benjamin curtis in the trial of andrew johnson back in the 1860s, where he argued that the framers intended for impe h impeachable co

rudy guiliani and some other folks are saying other thing about interference in it. do us a favor, can you check into it? it doesn't seem to be interfering in the 2016 election. that's settling an issue that's unsettled. >> i think the argument is the cloud of russia helping president trump in 2016 would be cleared, their retically, if what tom bossert, the former president's security adviser is called a debunk conspiracy theory, it would theoretically clear him, they could prove this cloud. >> that's a pretty big line, to go, especially when something had been put to bed. >> isn't that evidence? >> most definitely russia was the primary factor in 2016. the president still seems to have this question whether ukrainian server, i don't have a question with that i don't think it's true on that he still does, he is hearing information from two different side, he wants to get it cleared up. >> that doesn't affect the election. >> there was a delay and the demand for investigation, which the trump legal team argued, does not exist and we all saw it with our own eyes. >> ok

ithouti wouldn't do anything ent oft consent of rudy guiliani or the president.g to keep. i wa i was on the ground doing their work. >> >> reporter: today ukraine announced it would launch an investigation into possible illegal surveillance of u.s. ambassador marie yovanovitch. parnas's texts from last spring suggested that she was being s heowed by some individuals he knew. parnas also claims that vice president mike pence and attorney general william barr knew about all of this but the vice president's office and the white house are strenuously pushing back this morning, denying the allegations, and both saying parnas will say anything in hopes of staying out of prison. >> nancy, is all of this new information from parnas and some thet bombshell information lkely to affect the senate n ial in any way? >> reporter: absolutely. you already have democrats including the top democrat in the senate chuck schumer arguing that this evidence needs to get a full airing and that they need to look at parnas's documents, consider them, in the upcoming senate trial. but repu

have a terrif captioning sponsored by cbs >> lev parnas, the indicted associate of rudy guiliani, directly implicates president trump in the months-long effort to pressure ukraine to investigate the bidens. >> apparently, he wants to sing. >> if he wants to sing, it's best for him to sing to the federal prosecutors, really. >> and now... lev parnas sings! ♪ ♪

today's question and answer session where a democrat asked about the source of funding for rudy guiliani's efforts. the fact that he works as the president's personal attorney, but apparently, according to the questioner, isn't paid by the president of the united states. they wanted to know, who is paying him instead. and the president's counsel didn't answer that, but they pivoted to talking about hunter biden and how he got paid by a ukrainian energy company while his father was serving as one of the point people in the u.s. government, as vice president. dealing with ukraine and ukrainian corruption. so, democrats clearly want the focus to be on the lack of witnesses that is reflected by the questions and the answers. the republicans want the focus to shift away from the president, if at all possible, and to shine on the bidens instead. >> o'donnell: and some ways given that it looks like now that republicans may have the vote to block witnesses and bring a speedy end to this trial, perhaps by tomorrow night, the burden of proof spin ways on democrats today to make their case, i felt li

only because it was off the books and run by rudy guiliani that it makes effort to cheat the 2020 election. senate republicans don't believe that meets the cheating 2020 election standard by a long shot. and it's a very aggressive contention. and unlike the nixon and clinton impeachments where the body of facts were not only obvious, but agreed upon largely and implicated underlying law, that simply isn't the case here yet. >> o'donnell: and developed by an independent counsel or special prosecutor with grand jury authority. i think the point that you raise suggests why someone like john bolton would be very helpful in this process with firsthand knowledge of why the president did that. we don't have that kind of record here because we did not have grand jury. >> that gets to the point of intent andment president's motivations here. that's real question overall arguing about. president the can do all sorts of things if it's to benefit the country. i think people are willing to give him that leeway. been if it's to benefit himself and own political career, very different question. and i jus

effort, hail mary smear job he attached new articles including so called evidence from a former guiliani contact. by the way, on conspiracy tv the guy is facing charges from the southern district of new york. you don't want to mess with those people. campaign finance violations and all sorts of stuff. he goes to the conspiracy channel media. keep in mind when people like him try to stay out of jail, think about this, how many times have we heard from the liberals you can't water board, they will lie to make it end. well people try to stay out of jail, in my humble opinion, thee will say anything. if you're willing to smear trump you're welcomed. those indicted wanted less jail sentences are welcomed on nbc. another first rate hypocrite from new york, days after the election nadler issued a proclamation. we can't wait four years to vote mr. trump out of office. he wanted to impeach trump the day he was elected. also promising he would impeach trump. what for, we will make it up as we go. he didn't want the ken starr report, he had crimes committed by bill clinton. he didn't want that publ

have a terrif captioning sponsored by cbs >> lev parnas, the indicted associate of rudy guiliani, directly implicates president trump in the months-long effort to pressure ukraine to investigate the bidens. >> apparently, he wants to sing. >> if he wants to sing, it's best for him to sing to the federal prosecutors, really. >> and now... lev parnas sings! ♪ ♪ >> announcer: it's "the late show" with stephen colbert. tonight: the song unsung. plus, stephen welcomes: josh gad. and tamron hall. and a performance by tiana major9 and earthgang. featuring jon batiste and "stay human." and now, live on tape at the ed sullivan theater in new york city, it's stephen colbert! ( cheers and applause ) ( theme song playing ) whoo! hey! welcome, one and all, up there, down here, out there, everybody watching right now. tremendous. welcome to "the late show." i'm your host, stephen colbert. ( cheers and applause ) folks, if you have been watching the tv, you know it's an historic solid day that will forever alter the fabric of american democracy... so, thursday. because this afternoon, the senate official

according to fiona hill, former deputy for him at the nsc, he was distressed by interference by rudy guiliani and sondland and others outside the ukraine area getting involved in a separate side negotiation mike pompeo implicitly accepted. >> that distress has been reported by the nbc news and "washington post" and others. look at the statement ambassador bolton issued today, look where it was issued, from the bolton political action committee. this is someone who still wants to have a future in republican politics. when you understand that dynamic, you see him moving forward carefully, keeping an eye on federal court decisions, the mcgahn case, to figure out if he has to come forward. as much as he has confessed privately to friends and associates he has a lot to say because of his future in republican politics he doesn't want to be seen as someone betraying president trump or crossing party lines and why he's waiting in this incremental fashion to give his testimony. >> we should point out he's an officer of the court. he's a very very good lawyer and yale law and i believe all the rest tha

. >> this as new evidence emerges from a guiliani associate. >> president trump knew exactly what was going on. he a

guiliani had shared with him, replying to mr.s question that he preferred sending no assistance to ukraine until officials had turned over all materials that they had about the russia investigation that related to mr. biden and supporters of mrs. clinton in ukraine. what changes today? >> to me that changes everything. we have gotten ready to a new steady drum beat about the ukraine scandal. i think it's important people understand this is at a whole different level. this is right down the middle. this is the heart of the matter. this is direct testimony about a direct conversation with donald trump. there is no secondhand, no indirect, no speculation. it goes right to tying the aid directly to the investigation. so the republicans have raised the bar, raised the bar, raised the bar. they can't raise it any higher. now it's been cleared and, boy, there better be witnesses. i can't comprehend. joe will tell me in his political wisdom, even with this, there will be no witnesses. i can't comprehend there not being a witness, john bo

. >>> next up on msnbc, an audio appears to reveal conversations between rudy guiliani and lev parnastrial is about to enter week to two. e ims about to enter week to two they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ thouwhich is breast cancer metastthat has spreadcer, to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortnes

new every day, democrats say bolsters their case that president trump and his personal lawyer rudy guiliani were at the heart of the campaign to dig up dirt on joe biden and his son hunter. the senate can choose to ignore that evidence but it increases pressure on moderate republicans, if just four vote with democrats, they could bring new could you estimates and witnesses into the trial. the day of developments coming at the same time president trump signed phase 1 of a china trade deal while speaking directly to republicans who will sit in judgment of him. >> they have a hoax going on over there, let's take care of it. >> reporter: branding president trump's legacy with impeachment. chief justice john roberts will be sworn in tomorrow afternoon to preside over the trial and will then, in turn, swear in all senators toing a as jurors. in washington, alice barr, nbc news. >> okay. thank you, alice. let's bring our political analyst larry gerstin in. we saw that very proper walk with the papers over you know, it seems so old fashioned when you see it like that. >> and very serious. >> very s

. >> this as new evidence emerges from a guiliani associate. >> president trump knew exactly what was going

do you want lev parnas, the indicted associate of rouudy guiliani, who has provided documents, some ofh is helpful for democrats but may have a credibility issue to say the least. >> i won't get into any witness, the managers are meeting, talking regularly with our team, consider who can are the best witnesses to bring that case. we have to look at that time the entire universe of potential witnesses. >> sit on the table? sherrod braun said he assumes they would want to hear from. >> all of the relevant witnesses are on the table. what we need to make sure is we have documents, too, this can't be the first impeachment trial in american history where we don't have documents and witnesses produced by the president. >> could you use documents from lev parnas without hearing trademark from lev parnas? >> that is a possibility. what we have to do is we have to assess all the time both documents and witnesses. and in many instances, like any trial, documents are a great way to assess credibility. >> if you include documents not the testimony, people will say it's because you don't think the

>> well, speaking of what could potentially be evidence, over an hour audio and video of a rudy guilianis to show president trump at a donor dinner order d.c. removal of ambassador yovanovitch. what's your reaction to that? >> well, i know lev parnas no made that video publicly. i met him in 2018 and my understanding is that mr. parnas has even more information that is going to be coming out here in the coming weeks. he has offered to testify. his attorney, of course, has been on your air and has made other public appearances, so, aga again, there is more information out there. it will come out sooner or later. if i was a republican, i'd like to see it all now, a republican in congress, so that i could make the best decision possible. >> if you know him, you've met him, why do you think he is releasing these tapes? why did he tape all of these things in the first place? >> yeah, i think that's a complication question. part of this i think is legal strategy in terms of his own personal defense. i think another part of this is he just wants to be transparent and forthcoming about everythin

for that, because this was something he did behind closed doors, via an alternative channel rudy guiliani. >> can i say one thing? the case dershowitz was making wasn't exactly because it's best for the country. the case he was making was because he's best for the country and that's where it's staggering and dangerous. because a president who thinks that he is best for the country. >> he knows best. >> right. >> he knows best, no matter what he does, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt. >> only that i'm sure president clinton thought he was best for the country not telling the truth about an extra mar tam affair would be best for the country, no to the know those details, it didn't go that way. >> it didn't go that way and the president didn't take that position. he apologized and took responsibility on the issue of how republicans reacted, every single one of them, three different times yesterday walked by a camera on the way in and out of that session. not a single one of them raised an issue about this crazy theory. the really dangerous part. i worked on a bunch of campaigns as charl

and two, president trump instructed them to satisfy guiliani's concerns in order to move forward on ukrainel appointees and the ambassador had donated $1 million to the president's inauguration. the president saw these three political appointees as officials who would fulfil his request. the senate spent 13 hours yesterday debating the ground rules for the trial. it was agreed that each side will be given up to 24 hours to lay out their opening arguments. that will take place over three days. mitch mcconnell is the republican leader in the senate — he'd hoped to get it done over two days, but the democrats pushed for more — and he agreed. the greater disagreement is on the issue of whether to call witnesses — and there's still no agreement. here's the democratic leader in the senate, chuck schumer. mcconnell had to change his resolution and that shows republicans can make this trial more fair if they want to. it is not a question of ability. they can, if they want. it is a question of conscience for the senate republicans have the power in their hands to make it a fair trial. will they use

what were the two things that rudy guiliani was asking of president zelensky and his top aids?t would favorably impress donald trump? would donald trump be favorably impressed if zelensky were to tell him about this new investigation in the rata or how the investigations with the russians were going or how they're bringing about defense reform? did any of those things come up in any of these text messages, any of these e-mails, any of these phone calls, any of these conversations? of course fought. of course not. there was only one thing that was going to favorably impress president trump in warsaw and that is if zelensky told him to his face i'm going to do these political investigations. i don't want to do 'em. you know i don't want to do 'em. i resist doing 'em. but i'm at war with russia and i can't wait anymore. i can't wait anymore. i'm sure that would have impressed donald trump. but the meeting between the two presidents never happened in warsaw. president trump cancelled the trip at the last moment. before bolton left kiev, ambassador taylor asked for a private meeting

with the president of ukraine, and also why during that july 25th conversation he mentioned both guilianiarr in the same portion of the telephone call that he had with the president of ukraine. those are all evidence of something that was going on long before the july 25th phone call. so there's evidence out there, katy, and the senate republicans, led by mitch mcconnell, is very intent on not having any of that come out. >> if there are witnesses, say there are witnesses after the arguments are made, it's john bolton or mick mulvaney. and if they testify that the president was actually very focused on corruption and that this wasn't necessarily about the bidens because they were a political rival, would you be open to being convinced that this is not an abuse of power, that what he was doing was fully reasonable and within the bounds of his duty? >> i'd like to see the documentary evidence that attests to the fact that he actually cared about corruption, because we know that the department of defense had already certified that their concerns about ukrainian corruption had already been an

in a separate development, an associate of rudy guiliani — mr trump's personal lawyer — has accused thes with ukraine. in a tv interview, lev parnas said mr trump knew that military aid would be withheld from ukraine unless it investigated joe biden — a potential rival in this year's presidential campaign. mr parnas, who is facing separate criminal charges, said mr giuliani was never investigating corruption in ukraine. instead, the intention was to damage mr biden. the president denies the allegations. here's what mr parnas told rachel maddow on msnbc when asked what the main innacuracy was coming out of the white house. that the president didn't know what was going on... president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all of my movements. i wouldn't do anything without the consent of rudy giuliani or the president. i have no intent, i have no reason to speak to any of these officials. i mean, they have no reason to speak to me. why would president zelensky‘s inner circle or minister avakov or these people, or president poroshenko meet with me? who am i? let's just catc

guiliani had been publicly pressing for and that president trump, as we've heard, had privately urged president zelensky to conduct on the july 25th call. >> that same day, senators murphy and johnson met with president zelensky in kiev. ambassador taylor went with them. and he testified, mr. taylor testified, that president zelensky's quote first question to the senators was about withheld security assistance. ambassador taylor testified that both senators quote stressed that bipartisan support sfoor i for ukraine and washington was ukraine's most important asset and president zelensky should not jeopardize that pi partisan 40 by getting dawn into u.s. politicles. now senior johnson and senator murphy later submitted letters, where they explained that they sought to reassure president zelensky that there was bipartisan support in congress for providing ukraine with military assistance and they would continue to urge president trump to lift the hold. here is with they said in that letter. >> senator murphy said, senator johnson and i assured sz that congress wanted to continue this fu

attorney eddie gallagher, a disgraced then pardoned navy seal, and what would be a party without rudy guilianiat does that say to you about their appearances? we know this president is all about optics. >> well, it says to me that he is much more comfortable and relaxed down at mar-a-lago. he doesn't have a million aides who are hovering around him. he doesn't have as many gate keepers keeping people who he shouldn't be seen with as much from entering the white house. it is even in terms of security the secret service was concerned early on in his presidency because mar-a-lago members would just bring in people to the resort to try to meet with trump for their own personal agendas. he did not want that. and remember that chinese woman who kind of found her way into mar-a-lago and then got arrested. and so i think she is one of those unpredictable characters i think. >> yeah. that is true. you see the president making consequential decisions. for example like the strike that took out soleimani from mar-a-lago. what does that say to you about security and being tightly held to just a few top inf

in a separate development, an associate of rudy guiliani — mr trump's personal lawyer — has accused thehis administration's dealings with ukraine. in a tv interview, lev parnas said mr trump knew that military aid would be withheld from ukraine unless it investigated joe biden, a potential rival in this year's presidential campaign. mr parnas, who is facing separate criminal charges, said mr giuliani was never investigating corruption in ukraine. instead, the intention was to damage mr biden. the president denies the allegations. here's what mr parnas told rachel maddow on msnbc when asked what the main innacuracy was coming out of the white house. that the president knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all of my movements. i wouldn't do anything without consulting rudy giuliani or the president. i have no reason to speak to these officials and they have no reason to speak to me. why would all of these people meet with me? naomi ruchim is a correspondent for cbs and joins us now from new york. how serious are these new claims? these accusations are about the president and his

that's what lev parnas a former associate of rudy guiliani says. but how credible is that claim? place only a day after the entire cabinet resigned. it comes after president putin announced sweeping constituional changes — but what's the grand plan? in the modern era, do we need a woman to take up the mantle of 007? the series leading producer isnt stired by the idea. the historic impeachment trial of president trump got under way thursday as senate formally accepted the articles of impeachment. chiefjustice of the supreme court john roberts hasjust been sworn in to preside over the trial. the article of impeachment has been formally accepted. things are getting under way. democrat senators are now fighting to get witnesses included in this trial, but they would need a majority to vote. that would take four republican senators to side with the democrats. and so it goes, that's just the number who have said they are open to prospect. mitt romney, lamar alexander, lisa murkowski and susan collins. those are the ones everybody watching closely. meanwhile, house speaker nancy pelosi

system, was to produce this evidence on the extent of the campaign by trump and his attorney rudi guilianiit is that information which may have an effect going beyond the trial of the 2020 re—election bid of mr trump. meanwhile, the democrats are trying to whittle down to find out who will be their presidential candidate. as gary 0'donoghue was saying, that debate last night was a little lacklustre. do you think the republicans are concerned, given the field of democrats right there? do they ultimately believe that president trump is the person to ta ke president trump is the person to take on whoever the democrats can throw at him? i think people watched a different debate. i didn't see it as lacklustre, i think it was very issue rich, on a climate change, on foreign policy, from the iraq war in 2,000 to issues like iran and china today, on health and economic justice and policy. what happened is that the media try to reduce this to a clash of personalities, especially elizabeth warren versus bernie sanders. and when they didn't punch each other on the stage, they said it was a bit lacklu

lev parnas was on the president's legal team as part of the guiliani team?> right, he did. he did. no, it's incredible. to go back to the point -- well, birds of a feather, let's be serious here. but to go back to the point about the documents or the materials all being on trump's side. well, they actually aren't. he tried to make that the case but a lot of these witnesses decided to testify, notwithstanding the directions they received from the white house. and these foia requests are being -- and they provided some of their emails and text messages. but that shows you what his strategy is, which is exactly as john said, is we don't want anything more. we want to keep the rest of it to ourselves so nobody will see it because they know it's going to affect the numbers adversely. >> i keep reading the transcript the president says is perfect. marie yovanovitch, you can disagree with her decisions in ukraine, but the president of the united states telling the newly elected president of ukraine, well, she's going to go through some things. >> the u.s. ambassado

he said it was a mistake for him having done it because he didn't count on thugs like guiliani and others>> shannon: you and i know that there been a number of people who were not republicans or conservatives who said, they worried about this conflict of interest. we have a headline from "the new york times" and 2015, "obama administration worried about biden ukraine relationship." people have said, we were worried about how it looked. >> exactly. the real tell here and this happens in washington, the big tell is when joe biden started getting heat for this. what does he do? he announced, if he's elected president, no foreign deals for his family members. why was not your policy in the first place? i think he got caught. >> shannon: elizabeth warren, senator elizabeth warren said, relevant witnesses here in this trial are people who know what donald trump did and what his intent was and what his impact was on our national security. hunter biden doesn't have anything, any knowledge of that or any bearing on that. this conversation about whether he should be a witness or not, where do you t

guiliani by this point, you understood that in order to get that white house meeting that you wanted president certificate e eleven sky to have and that -- president zelensky to have and that he definitely wanted to have, that the president of ukraine would have to -- >> they would have to announce they were going to do it. >> right. because giuliani and president trump didn't actually care if they did them, right? >> i never heard mr. goldman, anyone say that the investigations had to start or had to be completed. the only thing i heard from mr. giuliani or otherwise was that they had to be announced in some form. and that form kept changing. >> announced publicly? >> announced publicly. >> the other evidence gathered by the house's investigation confirms ambassador sondland's understanding. for example, recently the house received documents from lev parnas, an associate of rudy giulianis, now indicted in response to a subpoena. as you know, parnas was indicted by the southern district of new york for crimes including election law violations. as participant of the documents that par

this person trump calling, lev parnas, one of rudy guilliani's associates, spent a lot of time with guilianihim one of the white house groupies. dana bash on capitol hill. the president previously said he didn't know lev parnas and parnas and his attorney releasing photographs and videos of the time they have spent together. it is clear rudy guilliani certainly did spend a lot of time with lev parnas. we're seeing the house managers there. >> we will answer a couple questions before we begin our presentation. yesterday, we feel we laid out a very powerful case for why this trial should be no different than any other trial in america. it should involve the calling of witness, it should involve the production of documents. the house should have the opportunity to prove its case. if we prove our case, the senate should convict and remove the president from office. but the senate should allow us a fair trial. the senate should allow us a fair trial to the american people, one that allows the house to call relevant witnesses. one thing that was clearly established yesterday, the senate is not a c