on the tape you hear his voice and that of igor fruman and others. 80-minute tape involved discussions including north korea and they upcoming congressional elections. but during a conversation about energy policy and vladimir putin, parnas mentions ukraine. it's at that point they discuss ambassador yovanovitch. >> the biggest problem there i think where you need to start is we got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration. she's basically walking around telling everybody wait, he's going to get impeachment. just wade. >> really? >> it's incredible. >> she'll be gone tomorrow. >> i don't remember his name. >> so what happens now that we have a secretary of state -- >> ged rid of her. get her out tomorrow. i don't care. get her out tomorrow. take her out. okay? >> excellent. >> do it. >> i spoke with lev parnas's attorney, joseph bondy. >> i want to ask you about some of the stuff on these recordings. at one point the president asks lev parnas about the former president of ukraine, i just want to play this. >

. >> igor fruman. >> igor fruman. entering the trump orbit, it's not the usual orbit that i have known being around and it is not typical in the other administrations. >> during the campaign it was small. >> that's right. it was the same people. the same faces. >> it was possible to actually get in. >> it was -- yeah. i mean, it was -- i mean, we were there all the time. >> you loved president trump. >> loved him. i mean, he -- i mean, when the fbi came to my house to raid it my wife felt embarrassed because they said i had a shrine to him. i had pictures all over. i idolized him. i thought he was the savior. >> you -- did you think you were friends? >> absolutely. i mean, again, i went from being a top donor, from being at all the events where we would just socialize to becoming a close friend of rudy giulianis to eventually becoming his ally and his asset on the ground in ukraine. >> the president has said-when you were arrested the president of the united states said he didn't know you. >> i tonight

. >> what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman? >> i don't know these gentlemen. >> tonight, house democrats unveil a trove of new documents provided by rudy giuliani's indicted associate. what we're learning from handwritten notes by lev parnas, what looks like a plan to tail the american ambassador to ukraine and what all of it means as democrats and the white house prepare for the trial of donald trump. >> the whole thing is a hoax. >> "all in" starts right now. >>> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. we've got very big breaking news tonight. on the eve of the house vote to send president donald trump's articles of impeachment over to the senate the house intelligence committee, that would be, of course, the economy that held the impeachment inquiry and interviewed the witnesses, that committee just released an incredibly incriminating cache of documents from rudy giuliani's indicted associate, lev parnas and told you yesterday the documents were transmitted over to the house and tonight just in the past couple hours re

and that the other associate, igor museum frum -- igor fruman, reported it. it raises so many questions about the extent of this. >> and the president is on trial for matters that pertain directly to this. and margaret, we are only just hearing this now. i can make an argument that because the president's talking about the removal of marie yovanovitch a year before joe biden even enters the race that it's not necessarily directly related to joe biden. maybe that helps the president. but it's evidence, and it's new evidence, and it paints the president as a liar about how well he knows lev parnas or his contacts with him. and it indicates that maybe there's more out there, more that is there for the taking if the senate wanted it. >> i mean, john, i think that it certainly shows that when the president is saying i don't know this guy, i've never heard of this guy, i meet a lot of people in photo lines and stuff, that that's just not borne out by the facts. and this is proof of it. and so it certainly undercuts the president's credibility with any denials he ma

and it is this dinner conversation that was captured on tape with president trump and igor fruman and lev parnas, the two guys that the president said he doesn't know. we're told that the tape is more than an hour long. he does know them. and he's as so upset about what they're telling him about marie yovanovitch which we don't believe was true. they were feeding him lines to their agenda. they wanted her gone because she was trying to bust the corruption that they were reportedly up to. he just wants -- he immediately orders that she be fired. so listen to this moment. >> the biggest problem there, i think, we need to start, we got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration. >> the ambassador to ukraine? >> yeah, she's basically walking around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached, just wait. >> get rid of her. get her out tomorrow. i don't care. get her out tomorrow. take her out. okay? do it. >> we haven't heard the full context of that tape. there will be more. and it will come out, or the senate could hear it now. >> yeah, t

he and soviet born businessman igor fruman worked as fixers operating on the ground in the ukraine and elsewhere on behalf of rudy giuliani and on behalf of the president as well, parnas says. parnas was on the front lines of giuliani's pressure campaign to get ukrainians -- launch an investigation, just to announce one and he says he on at least two occasions delivered the quid pro quo to ukrainian officials. president trump has denied knowing parnas, but parnas says the president is lying and he also says president trump knew exactly what he and giuliani were up to. and it wasn't about corruption in ukraine. parnas is under federal indictment on campaign finance charges. just this week documents and records from parnas's case were handed over to the house and intelligence community, pages of text exchanges with jewgiulianid others. i spoke to lev parnas earlier this week, accompanied by his attorney joseph bondi. >>> the person you were two years ago, are you the same person you were two years ago? >> no, i'm not the same person i was two years ago. two years ago i fell into -- i'm n

igor fruman recorded the conversation at the dinner.e recording from memory according to his lawyer. >> okay. >> these past weeks. this afternoon lev parnas found his own recording of -- >> on his eye cloud. >> joe bondi, his attorney, quickly got it to congress, to the house intelligence committee. and now they have to figure out what to do with it. >> so -- and someone gave it to abc news. >> yes, joe bondi, lev parnas's lawyer has been very clear to say that he has no idea how -- he does not believe it comes from him or from lev parnas. >> so i'm going to get you guys in, we have a very short time left on the air here. what do you think -- we've heard the president talk like this and the president doesn't know parnas, 15 people in the room, talking to them. >> it's striking to me,ton, earlier in the show you were highlighting reporting that -- leans against calling witnesses in the impeachment trial, momentum seems to be going in the other direction and now we're getting more information from somebody who should be a witness, close t

report, the president was apparently speaking at a small gathering that included lev parnas and igor frumanent trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani who have since been indicted in the southern district of new york. the recording is reportedly made by fruman. take a listen. >> the biggest problem there, i think where we need to start is we got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration she's basically walking around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached. just wait. it's incredible. >> get rid of her. get her out tomorrow. >> now parnas's attorney played a portion of what appears to be a copy of the same audio to msnbc's rachel maddow last night, and producers off camera during a commercial break. here's what he told maddow in a subsequent interview. >> a one hour 24 minute recording of that event. it is a dinner in the trump hotel, the private townhouse of president trump is there, mr. parnas is there. obviously mr. fruman is there, and about 40 minutes into the recording, the subject of the ambassador comes up. >> why does the subject

. >> along with igor fruman, wasn't there an investigation, didn't your team look into this, will there be an audit that's released to the public and the press? >> i don't know how much money he gave me. when it came out in the press, if you'll look, i've been pretty successful, i have raised more money than -- as the leader of the republican party, as the speakers of the republican party before me. people come to events and they take photos with me. this seems to be the case. i saw a photo that he had on there that he actually walked up to me at the inaugural and he put his hand around me and snapped a picture, like hundreds of thousands of other people did as well. that seems to be of interest to you. when i found out that this individual had given money to protect the house, it was given away to charity. i don't know what more you need by that. because you come back every week with the same question. >> every week you avoid answering it. >> okay, let's be honest and fair, okay? you just said a week ago you asked me the question and i answered. now i answer the same question again. we

>> remember, he's with igor fruman, and you can hear him on the recording as well. kraine. so that's information that is really known to mr. fruman, becomes known to mr. parnas. they speak not only about ukraine, the ambassador when it's raised lev tells me and tells everyone that he was incredibly surprised to hear the reaction of the president, this kind of embracing the idea that indeed the ambassador now needs to be gotten rid of. >> so mr. parnas now says he doesn't believe that information was true. he did believe it was true at the time. he apologized to ambassador yovanovitch for any harm that he may have caused her. he essentially regrets his role in this, but the way you're describing it, it sounds like his source for this information that he then turned and told to the president in person at this event was his co-defendant igor fruman? >> i believe so, yeah. >> and igor fruman would have received -- would have heard those rumors from ukraine rather than cooking them up himself? >> i don't think he had an interest either, i think this was kind of well-known

lev parnas and igor fruman. mr. parnas and mr. fruman were indicted on charges including supporting president trump. simply put, in doing her job well, ambassador yovanovitch drew mr. lutsenko's ire. and as mr. kent observed, you can promote anticorruption efforts without taking off corrupt people. as it turned out, this statement applied to mr. lutsenko and mr. giuliani who feared that the ambassador would stand in the way of his corrupt efforts to course ukraine into conducting investigations that would benefit the interest of his client, president trump. mr. giuliani's courting smear campaign against ambassador yovanovitch became public in the united states in late march, 2019. with the publication of a series of opinion pieces in the hill based on interviews with mr. lutsenko. on march 20th 2019, and want peace in "the hill," mr. lutsenko falsely accused ambassador yovanovitch of giving him o a do not prosecute list. not only was the allegation false, originating the claim, mr. lutsenko would later go on to retract it. the sam

the four people in that meeting, myself, his former partner, igor fruman, and two others, say that it's absolutely untrue. the meeting never took place. the records demonstrate the meeting never took place. >> so that would indicate that he wasn't being directed by the president through you -- >> no, no, it indicates that he lied, misrepresented it. like michael cohen did. >> so waj, now he's a liar, like they say about michael cohen. >> i think we should believe rudy giuliani, he takes photos with a lot of people that were indicted like lev parnas and igor fruman. now we're supposed to to believe he attacked marie yovanovitch, and somehow this deal that everyone was a part of, that's not my words, that's ambassador sondland. trump's pick to the eu who said that everyone, everyone was in the loop when it came to this drug deal, when it came to trump abusing his power to push ukraine to investigate joe biden and interfere in the u.s. elections, one of the two articles of impeachment of which he is the third president ever to be impeached. we should trust rudy giuliani here. when he says

the fact that he was the guy, according to igor fruman is, they were on the ground and they would deale former president. the man that is heading intelligence services under zelensky. hold up a phone and rudy giuliani would be on speaker phone saying, listen to these guys. they represent the president, me. listen to what they have to say, what they're going o tell you. >> it's not conventional. i can kind of wonder if there's some reason to have igor and lev doing that bidding. >> if it's actually in the national security interests, it makes no sense that it's these two guys. >> guys with no security experience and no diplomacy experience, can you say if they gave donations to other gop senators. i know from the public record he gave donations to sort of joint fundraising committees that -- >> yes. >> -- could then be distributed to a number of candidates. >> yes. >> did he also give directly? >> i think it was more -- there were some direct donations, small, direct donations but really more larger donations to super pacs that could then unbundle those donations and give them to the go

former giuliani associate igor fruman reporting on a dinner in 2018 in which it's alleged the presidentrid of the former ambassador marie yovanovich. we are told that was turned over to investigators in congress. my question is, she wasn't fired until 14 months later. what in the world is the big deal here? >> early on when i wrote my story everyone said i was the reason she got fired. the concern of the ambassador and her stewardship of the embassy goes back a year before my reporting. at the end of the day, the president is going to fire her because he didn't like the color paint she painted her office. it's a red herring. why was our embassy so incompetent that it couldn't fight this issue in ukraine. lou: why don't we understand what is clearly a dissident moment here. there is so much attention on her. and there was so much attention from the left. she had sponsorships from every corner. around her. and we don't understand -- i don't understand why. i haven't seen a written report of why. and it goes on. there has to be more to this story than any of us now understand. >> we know f

the person who made the tape and who's not commented about it was actually igor fruman.ccording to joe bondi, who is lev parnas' lawyer, there was a general discussion among a very small group of people that the tape is an hour and a half long, and the subject of the ukraine in general came up. now, lev parnas has said that he had problems with the ambassador, she was an obama appointee. i think it's worth remembering that in the indictment that lev parnas is under from the southern district of new york, they do talk about lev parnas' business ties and, you know, there's a notion that maybe the ambassador was an obstacle to parnas and fruman's business ambitions in the ukraine. and i think it's important to remember that in the context of this dinner. >> so now legally, michael, we have a couple of different boxes here. one is the president said i don't know parnas, i don't know what he was up to, i would have never talked to him about anything like this. first, what does this tape mean on that score? >> that he is not telling the truth. it's pretty straightforward that

clearly he has documentation as does, it seems like his associate igor fruman to back it up.e want to see more of that. his lawyers come on cnn tonight and says he has more video recordings, we need to see them. >> look, this is why it's so dicey for the senators to ignore it. this guy parnas is playing to advantage. he's got a case hanging over his head and it's a scary case. his lawyer is dribbling things out a little bit here and there. they're no angels either. it leads to what should be curiosity that right now is being shared by you. it should be shared by senators. let's leave it there. as we get more pieces to puzzle, i know you'll help us put them together. vicky ward, thank you so much. amazing they are not reviewing what you just saw and these documents we're telling you about. we'll keep drilling on these because we don't know what happened and why. and what we do know already is obvious enough. but what we don't know is even scarier in some ways. so, how did the team do today? how did they set themselves up? we'll take a look at where we know they're going on mon

this tape provided -- well, this tape of lev parnas and igor fruman talking to the president in 2018 about the removal of ambassador marie yovanovitch. we have a little bit more we're going to play right now. >> the biggest problem there where we need to start, we've got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration. >> the ambassador [ bleep ] -- >> basically walk around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached. just wait. >> really? [ laughter ] ? >> it's incredible. get her out. get her out tomorrow. take her out, okay? do it. >> okay. "take her out, get rid of her, get rid of her tomorrow." we don't know if parnas is telling -- if he's telling parnas to get rid of her or giuliani. this lends credence to what parnas has been saying publicly about the conversation with the president. this is a year before, a year before joe biden entered the race. it doesn't seem that this conversation is designed to hurt joe biden. maybe, maybe in some ways this evidence helps the president, but it's evidence. it is evidence perks and it's new. >>

president, sir, what conversations -- what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman? >> i don't know those gentlemen. >> you're in pictures with them. >> then senator chris murphy on white house deception about iran. >> he didn't cite a specific piece of evidence. what he said is he probably, he believed could have been. >> are you saying there wasn't one? >> i didn't see one. >> the president's latest lies about preexisting conditions. >> nobody knew health care could be so complicated. >> three weeks from iowa, a crowded leaderboard comes into focus a as another candidate drops out. >> we know beating donald trump is the floor, not the ceiling. >> when all in starts right now. >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. well, it looks like we are going to have the third presidential impeachment trial in history starting next week. speaker pelosi has remained secretive about the process of turning over the two articles of impeachment to the senate. refusing to make firm commitments on timing. what we do know is she's holding a caucus meeting tomorrow where she

. >> so parnas also pushed back at president trump's claim that he does not know parnas and igor fruman. here's the president back in october. >> i don't know those gentlemen. now, it'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 fundraiser or somewhere. but i have pictures with everybody. i don't know if there's anybody i don't have pictures with. i don't know them. 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 just don't know. >> he lied. i mean, we're not friends. i mean, when you say friends, i mean, me and knew exactly who we were, he ae on one conversations at gatherings, where they would have round tables, six people at a table. we had several of those. >>> mike pence and what parnas claims was the vice president's role in the scheme. let's start with the message parnas was told to deliver to ukraine about making that announcement of an investigation into the bidens.

i spoke to a source everier today, bill, that was familiar with the recording that was made by igor fruman. when you listen to that part of the conversation and the overall context, it is clear that the president was not really being serious about it. i mean, even though ambassador yovanovitch was eventually removed. don't forget that dinner was in april of 2018. yovanovitch stayed on as ambassador almost 14 months after that so it's clear if the president was giving some direction, it wasn't something somewhat happened for more than a year after that. but it does sort of contradict the president's statements that he didn't know lev parnas. if he was actually having a dinner with him and just a few other people. bill? >> bill: thanks, john. back here in new york, a natural cyst with james freeman, the "wall street journal." what have you heard for four days? >> i'm hearing a progressive stream of consciousness from add dim schiff. i don't know if this is persuasiveness. he's talking about candidate trump 2016 press conference, bringing up the old discredited collusion claims and also dragg

lev parnas has been making the round, we haven't heard from igor fruman.fruman was secretly making these recordings, it's significant. it makes you wonder how many other tapes are out there that would contradict donald trump and perhaps others. >> here's another clip of what appears to be parnas talking to the president about ambassador yovanovitch a year before she was fired. ador yovanovitch a year before she was fired. . >> couldn't this be used as evidence, potentially. and if it was, do you think it would make a difference? >> it could be used as evidence in the impeachment trial and used as everyday in a criminal trial if charges were ever brought. let me tell you, this tape, if authentic is about as troubling as anything that we have heard the president say or do. think about this, lev parnas is apparently having a conversation with the president of the united states providing him information, perhaps false information, about a u.s. ambassador marie yovanovitch saying, well, you know, she wants you impeached and in knee-jerk fashion, what does the p

lev parnas and igor fruman, associates of rudy giuliani, whose relationship with giuliani has been vague at times. it appears that they were paying mr. giuliani. there is a record of them paying him half a million dollars. on the other hand, at times he appears to have been paying them, or at least employing them in some capacity. fruman and parnas have represented themselves as having been working forge in giuliani's capacity as president trump's personal lawyer, which would mean by the transit of property, they were working for president trump. it's never been totally clear what exactly the relationship of that -- what exactly the contours of that relationship were and how money factored into it. presumably that will become clear at some point. but there has been this parallel case of these two unusual guys -- it's been sort of chugging along in the news alongside and abutting the impeachment proceedings on capitol hill against the president for this scheme in which they were apparently involved with mr. giuliani. well, now today most unexpectedly, that has just blown open. the impeach

and last week a tape surfaced in menacing tones with two of his indicted henchmen, lev parnas and igor frumanou remember these two guys if you have trouble remembering who's who, lev is the hot one. [ laughter ] now you might remember that trump has repeatedly claimed he doesn't know these two guys, which is obviously a lie, given how often trump has had to say it >> sir, what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman? >> i don't know those gentlemen. i don't know them. i don't know about them. i don't know what they do. i will say this, parnas i don't know i don't know him i don't know anything about him. well, i don't know him i don't know parnas. i don't know him at all. don't know what he's about don't know where he comes from know nothing about him i don't know him i don't believe i've ever spoken to him but i don't know him i've never had a conversation that i remember with him i don't need the help of a man that i never met before. i don't even know who this man is no, i don't know him, i know nothing about him. >> seth: when you have to say you've never met someone th

the dinner party included lev parnas and igor fruman, two now- indicted associates of rudy giuliani, yovanovitch was criticizing him to colleagues in kyiv and stood in the way of their desired investigations of the bidens. >> our opinion, that she is bad- mouthing him, and his reaction was he looked at me, got very angry, and basically turned around to john destefano and said,, fire her." >> i don't know them. >> reporter: the president has repeatedly denied knowing parnas or fruman, despite appearing in multiple pictures alongside them. this afternoon, he also denied discussing yovanovitch's firing at the dinner and defended her removal. >> i have a right to hire and fire ambassadors. >> reporter: the president has made his views about yovanovitch well known, calling her "bad news," in the july 25 conversation with ukrainian president zelensky. >> i was shocked, absolutely shocked. >> reporter: california democrat adam schiff said the president's dinner conversation supports the ongoing impeachment efforts. >> it would certainly corroborate much of what we've heard. >> reporter: sou

fruman, igor fruman, i don't know those gentlemen, i don't know about them, i don't know what they do. you're saying that was not a true statement from the president? >> he lied he knew exactly who we were. he knew exactly who i was especially because i interacted with him at a lot of events. >> giuliani responded to nbc news about that parnas interview saying, quote, he is a very sad situation and that parnas never spoke on behalf of the president. so that was just part one of maddow's interview with lev parnas part two will air tonight on msnbc at 9:00 eastern. >>> president trump, meanwhile, strikes another trade deal with china. wall street applauded the deal closing above 29,000 for the first time in history. the agreement comes after a two-year trade war that stirred up the markets in it china commits to buying an extra $200 billion worth of american products over the next two years. american families are unlikely to see cheaper prices on chinese products like tvs, shoes, and clothing because the u.s. tariffs will remain in effect until the second phase of the deal is complete >

the release of an explosive new audiotape that reportedly features president trump speaking to igor fruman lev parnas at a dinner in 2018. >> on a tape, a voice identified as parnas can be heard telling trump that the ambassador to ukraine was bad mouthing him. >> yeah, she's basically walking around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached. >> really? >> it's incredible. >> get rid of her. get her out tomorrow. i don't care. take her out, okay? do it. >> president trump has repeatedly said he doesn't know lev parnas but on the tape they talk in detail about ukraine. >> stephanie grisham said gathering doesn't mean the president knew of or even remembered lev parnas, the president sits at many, many dinners, at many, many round tables with people that he does not know. >> trevor: yeah, the president has many, many dinners, sometimes all on the same night. ( laughter ) come on, guys, i'm sorry. you just can't keep pretending that trump doesn't know this guy, all right? because, first, they said trump wouldn't remember all the people he takes photos with it. i understand that. no

fruman, igor fruman, i don't know about those gentlemen, i don't know what they do.ou're saying that was not a true statement from the president. >> he lied. >> reporter: lev parnas also facing indictment and more potential charges is doubling down. >> it was all about joe biden and hunter biden. it was never about corruption. it was strictly about burisma which included hunter biden and joe biden. >> reporter: parnas suggesting vice president pence and attorney general barr were also aware of the pressure campaign. >> i called back and said, no go. and i remember rudy going, okay. to myra wareness trump called up to make sure pence doesn't go there. >> you believe that mr. pence's trip to the inauguration was canceled because they didn't agree. >> oh, i know 100%. >> reporter: new evidence handed over by parnas was made public by the house intelligence committee. text messages, emails and handwritten notes. on may 3rd of last year rudy giuliani messaged him on whatsapp. boy, i'm so powerful i can intimidate the entire ukrainian government. when hanked if he had any

was seated at the center of the table, across from igor fruman and lev parnas, two now-indicted associates of rudy giuliani. mr. trump is heard ordering marie yovanovitch be fired. the former ambassador to ukraine. >> reporter: president trump insists he does not know parnas, even though they appear in several pictures together. earlier this week, he said this: >> he's a con man. i don't know him, other than he's sort of like a groupie. he shows up at fundraisers. >> reporter: in an interview that aired last night, president trump denied having the recorded conversation. >> i wouldn't have been saying that. i have a right to hire and fire ambassadors. >> reporter: yovanovitch was at the center of a smear campaign led by giuliani, who claims she was in the waive his efforts in ukraine. >> they told me that she was specifically holding up visas in order to obstruct the investigation of collusion in the ukraine, and specifically to obstruct the biden investigation. eporter: the career diplomat was abruptly sent home in may, which allowed the president's team to direct thraine policy right bef

. >>> what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman? >> i don't know those gentlemen. >> he knew exactly he we were, who i was especially because i interacted with him at a lot of events. >> did you ever talk to this guy lev parnas or whoever his name is? >> you know, it's possible, but i haven't gone through all of my phone records. i don't really recall. >> do you know congressman devin nunes. >> yes, i do. >> concerning joe biden and his son hunter trump told zelensky, "whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great." >> mr. barr, i told him everything. he knows everything. i mean, it's impossible. >> i never discussed the issue -- the ish a you of the bidens with president zelensky. >> vice president pence tasked at that meeting getting president zelensky to announce investigations of joe biden specifically? >> yes. >>> good morning, welcome to "morning joe." january 16th. along with joe, willie and me, a little tired this morning. we have donny deutsch here who matched his classes with his outfit. washington anchor fo

and two additional characters in the news as of late, lev parnas and igor fruman. and they were indicted on charges, including charges to large donations that they used to support president trump. simply put in doing her job well, ambassador yovanovitch drew mr. lutsenko's ire. and you can't promote presumption efforts without pissing off corrupt people. as it turned out the statement applied to lutsenko and to rudy giuliani who feared that the ambassador would stand in the way of his corrupt efforts to coerce ukraine into conducting investigations that would benefit the political interests of his client, president trump. giuliani's coordinated smear campaign against ambassador yovanovitch became public in the united states in late march, 2019 with the publication of a series of opinion pieces in the hill, based on interviews with lutsenko. on march 20th, 2019, in what was in the hill, lutsenko falsely alleged that ambassador yovanovitch had given him a so-called do not prosecute list. not only was the allegation false after helped originate the claim, lutsenko wou

former giuliani associate igor fruman reporting on a dinner in 2018 in which it's alleged the presidentd get rid of the former ambassador marie yovanovich. we are told that was turned over to investigators in congress. my question is, she wasn't fired until 14 months later. what in the world is the big deal here? >> early on when i wrote my story everyone said i was the reason she got fired. the concern of the ambassador and her stewardship of the embassy goes back a year before my reporting. at the end of the day, the president is going to fire her because he didn't like the color paint she painted her office. it's a red herring. why was our embassy so incompetent that it couldn't fight this issue in ukraine. lou: why don't we understand what is clearly a dissident moment here. there is so much attention on her. and there was so much attention from the left. she had sponsorships from every corner. around her. and we don't understand -- i don't understand why. i haven't seen a written report of why. and it goes on. there has to be more to this story than any of us now understand. >> we

couldn't ignore the latest impeachment revelation, a report about an alleged dinner with parnas and igor frumanmarie yavanovitch was being critical of him. a tape recording of the april dinner made by fruman caught the president saying get rid of her, get her out tomorrow. i don't care, get her out tomorrow, take her out, okay, do it. the president responded. >> you have a state department. >> i would have said it was rudy or somebody but i make no bones about it. i want ambassadors chosen by me. i have a right to hire and fire ambassadors. >> a source familiar with the report says when taken in context the conversation it is clear the president was not being serious about firing yovanovitch at least at that moment. she served 14 months after this tape but the mere existence of a tape in that small intimate dinner if it did happen would fly in the face of the president's claim that he doesn't know parnas. >> he takes a lot of pictures but if it is a small dinner, maybe. thank you very much. late tonight or controversy brewing over comments a short time ago by house impeachment manager adam schi

fruman, igor fruman, "i don't know those gentlemen, i don't know about them, i don't know what they dong that was not a true statement from the president? >> he lied. i mean, we're not friends, when you say "friends," me and him didn't watch football games together, we didn't eat hot dogs. >> stephen: "i mean, he invited me over for hot dogs, but by the time i got there, they were all gone. so was a large portion of the football." parnas talked to anderson cooper, and shocked everyone by revealing that before trump tried to pressure zelensky into announcing an investigation of biden, trump had already put the same screws to ukraine's previous president, petro poroshenko. >> the first quid pro quo we gave was when we met with president poroshenko. if he would make the announcement, that he would-- trump would invite him to the white house, or make a statement for him. but basically, would start supporting him for, you know, president. >> so that was the first quid pro quo. poroshenko could can come to the white house or get meeting with trump if he announces an investigation. >> correct

he and igor fruman operated on the ground on behalf of rudy giulia giuliani. the front line to get the ukrainians to announce an investigation into the bidens. not to launch an investigation, just to announce one. he says he on at least two occasions delivered the quid pro quo to ukrainian officials. president trump has denied knowing parnas but parnas says he is

specifically, the role of rudy giuliani's associates, lev parnas and igor fruman, the ursula's eels of ukraine investigation. ( laughter ) ( cheers and applause ) >> jon: oh, wow! wow! >> 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 ) now, these parties are big, crowded affairs, but lev and igor got v.i.p. treatment. at one point during the party, parnas and fruman slipped out to have a private meeting with the president and giuliani-- though, i know, it sounds bad. ( audience reacts ) it sounds bad-- though, it is a hanukkah party... they may have just gone off to play a high-stakes game of dreidel. ( laughter ) ( 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-- some people-- ( applause ) >> jon:

he and soviet born businessman igor fruman worked as fixers operating on the ground in the ukraine and the president as well, parnas says. parnas was on the front lines of giuliani's pressure campaign to get ukrainians -- launch an