mr. fruman was subpoenaed by congress on october 7th. he indicated he was not going to comply with that subpoena. the next day october 8th, he booked this flight. the next day after that, october 9th he was at the airport. he was arrested on the bridge as he was boarding a one way flight to vienna. that's not the sole basis for the government's detention of the argument but it's the fear here, which he had a reason to leave and he did it on short notice. prosecutors go onto argue had igor made it to europe he would have found it easy, comfortable even to stay there. quote, mr. fruman lived a good part of his life in ukraine. he has substantial business ties there. prosecutor says he operates a bar called buddha bar. he has a luxury brand called ta-da that has hotels and restaurants. the judge says that is in europe, the prosecutor says, yes, your honor, i can pass this up to you. this is the hotel brochure. mr. fruman is on the second page. it describes him as the president and ceo. the prosecutor says, quote, this is not in the pretrial

mr. fruman toad wrote to the judge in the case. mr. e the judge a heads up at that hearing tomorrow he's going to ask the judge to let igor ditch his ankle bracelet. quote, based on information after we agreed to this condition, such a condition is no longer the least restrictive condition that can reasonably assure the appearance of mr. fruman at trial. i respectfully request the permission to describe the reason for this request more fully on the record at the bail modification hearing tomorrow. what's that about? we reached out to our colleague former u.s. attorney joyce vance tonight to get her thoughts on why igor fruman's attorneys might be pitching this to the judge or reacting this way to his home detention and his ankle bracelet. she told us, quote, he's likely upset that probation is doing routine financial considerations on him because he's afraid they'll uncover evidence of other crimes. joyce says, quote, hilarious. been there before with defendants. for what it's worth we don't know what information was learned after igor

mr. fruman. and so it was unclear to me why they were interested in doing this. >> were you especially influential implementing policies that stymied their interests in ukraine? or advocating for some sort of environment or policies that would be averse to them? >> i think that, umm, just the general idea that obviously u.s. ambassadors, u.s. embassies, one of our most important functions is to facilitate u.s. business abroad, right, whether it's trade, whether it's commerce. that's one of the things that we do. and -- but, you know, everything has to be above board. we believe in a level playing ground but we obviously advocate for u.s. business. these two individuals, with hindsight, what we learned later, were looking to open up a new energy company, exporting liquified natural gas to ukra e ukraine, never actually came to the embassy, which is unusual, because that would usually be a first stop, going to the american chamber of commerce, going to the u.s. embassy, get the lay of the land, see

mr. fruman and not only that was tied in with them financially?ecret mission take start. and in its early stages it's quite successful. lev parnas and igor fruman about and meet with parashenco you need to announce the investigation and in turn p return there will be a state visit. he gets 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, maria 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 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

mr. fruman, that they basically wanted to remove me from post.ing on that. >> did you have any awareness at that point in time of precisely why they were seeking your ouster? >> you know, i didn't understand that at all, because i had never met mr. parnas and mr. fruman, and so it was unclear to me why they were interested in doing this. >> were you especially influential implementing policies that stymied their interests in ukraine? were you odd va coadvocating fo environment or policies that would be adverse to them? >> i think just the fact that u.s. ambassadors, one of our most important function, is to facilitate u.s. business abroad, right? whether it's trade, whether it's commerce, that's one of the things that we do. but everything has to be aboveboard. we believe in a level playing ground and so forth, but we obviously advocate for u.s. business. these two individuals with hindsight and what we learned later, looking to open up a new energy company exporti ining liquefied natural gas to ukraine never actually came to the embassy, which i

mr. fruman and parnas to get a meeting with mr. giuliani. >> those were not people actually in government or became in the zelensky regime, is that correct? >> no. >> okay. mr. chairman, i yield back. thank you. >> mr. castro. >> thank you, chairman, and thank you, ambassador, for your 33 years of service to our nation. a big question here today is why you were pushed aside as ambassador. for example, americans know that an employer has a right to fire an employee, but they shouldn't do it for certain reasons. you shouldn't be fired because you're disabled, because you're a woman, because you're black, and for other reasons. and i think most americans agree that a president shouldn't fire an ambassador or recall an ambassador because the ambassador's standing in his way of doing a corrupt act. so i want to ask you, did the president ever tell you why he was recalling you? >> no. >> did anybody at the white house ever tell you why you were being recalled? >> no. >> did the president ever consult you about who the good guys and the b

mr. fruman right up until they got arrested. as of tonight, it appears mr. parnas, lev, has changed his mind and he's now willing to tell the committees something. lev parnas, "indicted ukrainian american businessman who has ties to president trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani is now prepared to comply with requests for records and testimony from congressional impeachment investigators." his new lawyer told reporters today. "the new york times" tonight adds this detail as to what might have led to this change of heart from mr. parnas. "the turnabout occurred after mr. trump denied knowing mr. parnas when parnas was arrested." telling "times" tonight, "mr. parnas was upset by president trump's plainly false statement that he did not know him." so, lev and igor are under arrest awaiting trial. at least one of them, the one who was reportedly paying rudy giuliani while simultaneously working for a mobbed up ukrainian oligarch close to the kremlin, he's now interested in cooperating with the impeach the inquiry. right? so watch this space. i mean, this is --

mr. fruman who were working with mayor guiliani and that they had set up the meetings for mr.guiliani and were interested in having a different ambassador at post i guess because they wanted to have business dealings in ukraine or additional business dealings. it does open up the question of whether -- what is your take on this? this is rudy guiliani all trying to make a lot of money and dangles the joe biden investigation in front of trump who gets fully onboard but this is rudy guiliani's deal. >> yeah. i mean, look. here you have the ambassador, career diplomat, trying to do her job, you know, serving american national security interests in ukraine, and learning that she is being undercut by the president's personal lawyer dealing with these business guys who are working for a business deal and essentially undercutting everything she is doing as ambassador. it was an untenable situation that she was in. she's also, you know, hears from one of the senior ukrainian officials telling her she has to watch her back because guiliani was going to that senior ukrainian official, ba

mr. fruman. so it was unclear to me why they were interested in doing this. >> were you especially influential in implementing policies that stymied their interests in ukraine? advocating for some sort of environment or policy that would be adverse to them? >> i think it just the general idea of that, obviously, u.s. ambassadors, u.s. embassies, one of our most important functions is to facilitate u.s. business abroad, right? whether his trade, whether it's commerce. that's one of the things that we do. everything has to be above board, on a level playing ground. we obvious advocate for u.s. business. these two individuals, with hindsight and what we learned later, looking to open up a new energy company exporting liquefied natural gas to the ukraine, never actually came to the embassy. which is unusual, because that would usually be a first stop. going to be american chamber of commerce, going to the u.s. embassy, get the lay of the land, see how we can provide assistance. >> was that a source o

mr. fruman who have recently been indicted. >> those are the two who have been indicted in new york? >> southern district of new york. >> >> now, at the end of march, this effort by giuliani and his associates resulted in a series of articles in the hill publication that were based on allegations, in part from luschchenko, the corrupt prosecutor general. and just to summarize some of these allegations, there were, among others, three different categories. one category included the attacks against you, which you referenced in your opening statement, including that you had bad-mouthed the president and had given the prosecutor general a do not prosecute list. there was another that included allegations of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. and then there was a third that related to allegations concerning burisma and the bidens. is that accurate? >> yes. >> were these articles and allegations then promoted by others associated with the president in the united states? >> they seemed to be promoted by those around mayor giuliani. >> i'm going to show you a couple of exhibits, in

mr. fruman working with rudy giuliani and they were interested in a different ambassador at the post because i guess they wanted to have business dealings in ukraine or additional business dealings. i didn't understand that because nobody at the embassy had ever e met these two individuals. in the case of ambassador yovanovitch, let's remember, her position and removal are also at the center of a criminal case that's currently being brought by the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york against two men who are associates of the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, who reportedly paid giuliani half a million dollars, who hung out at yankee games among other places with rudy and got prime seats at a 2018 trump rally and represented themselves to congress as members of the president's legal team. and lets remember part of the charges against these two men is that they were giving donations to a member of congress as part of this sprawling effort to get rid of ambassador yovanovitch so that they could corruptly install friendly associates to promote their business interests in

mr. fruman for their records. we would like them to fully comply with those subpoenas.y go beyond those documentary requests but we first want to see the documents. and we have seen time and time again the importance of getting documents before witnesses testify. it would be nice to have those documents before we question people like the secretary of state or question people like mr. parnas >> seth: can you imagine this guy testifying before congress he'd have to get special permission to wear a tie with his track suit [ laughter ] the house has laid out the next steps in the impeachment inquiry, a vote could come by the end of the year. and judging by the polls, if trump does get impeached, americans will be doing a lot of - >> thanksgiving. [ laughter and applause >> seth: this has been "a closer look." ♪ [ cheers and applause we will be right back with jeff goldblum, everybody [ cheers and applause ♪ >> announcer: for more of seth's "closer looks," be sure to subscribe to "late night" on youtube. competition and rose above. fe you've never tried a retinol like this.

mr. fruman made a donation to the president's super pac, for instance. but our understanding is that this is a very wide ranging investigation. there are a lot of people out there who are in the process right now of responding to grand jury subpoenas from the southern district of new york. and our understanding is the prosecutors are eyeing a wide range of possible criminal violations, including wire fraud, destruction of documents, false statements, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making foreign contributions to political campaigns. that isn't to say that necessarily all of those or any of those will ultimately result in charges. but they're certainly looking hard. >> clear something up for us then, if you will. rudy giuliani's attorney, robert costello issued a statement to nbc news and here's what he said, mr. giuliani has not received any subpoena requests, mr. giuliani has not received any requested from the sdny. if they ask for something, we will gladly comply to put this speculation to rest. mr. giuliani has done something wrong. so what

mr. fruman for their records. we would like them to fully comply with those subpoenas. we may go beyond those documentary requests, but we first want to see the documents. and we have seen time and time again the importance of getting documents before witnesses testify, as we saw during the hearing, when sondland, ambassador sondland brought in documents showing the secretary of state was implicated in this. it would be nice to have those documents before we question people like the secretary of state or question people like mr. parnas. >> so your committee will come up with a report and then send it to the house judiciary committee. your counterpart, there, is congressman jerry nadler, chairman jerry nadler, democrat of new york. take a listen to what he had to say just before he took over the chairman, laying out his standard for impeachment. >> you don't want half the country to say to the other half for the next 30 years, we won the election, you stole it from us. you have to be able to think before -- at the beginning of the impeachment process, that the evidence i

mr. fruman and several people who worked with them. this investigation's fascinating because each new tranche of testimony, each new set of documents basically takes the story further down the road that we already understand, and undercuts the explanations that the white house has offered. i think it's really significant that we now know that the president would already have been aware of the whistle-blower complaint saying there was something wrong and troubling in this july 25 phone call between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine. he already knew there was a complaint about it when he made that histrionic statement from gordon sondland, i want nothing, i want nothing, i don't want a quid pro quo. just an odd statement on its face, why would you call somebody and say that. now that we know he already would have been informed there was an investigation into precisely that issue, i think tens to und tends to undercut some of the white house defense. we'll now go into the phase where jerry nadler will try to pull all this

mr. fruman who have recently been indicted by the southern district of new york, who indicated that they wanted to change up the ambassador. think they must've at some reason for that. >> and to think they were seeking a different type of ambassador that would allow them to achieve some of their objectives? >> i don't know what other reason there would be. >> okay. is ambassador taylor the type of person who would facilitate those objectives? >> no. >> so basilar tip is a man of high integrity? >> absolutely. >> he's a good pick for the post? >> he is. i would note that he is that charge a out there. so no masochist yet or no candidate has yet been named to the position. >> but he certainly has had a decorated career serving his country? >> absolutely. a man with the highest integrit integrity. >> you testified about when you first learned that mayor giuliani and some of his associates had a concerted campaign against you, when did that first come to your attention? >> we were picking up rumors from ukrainians, i think, kind of in the november-december timeframe within in january, februa

mr. fruman and mr. parnas when that was apparently to get a meeting for mr. giuliani. >> but those are not people actually in government or became in the zelensky regime. is that correct? >> no. >> okay. mr. chairman, i yield back. thank you. >> mr. castro. >> thank you, chairman an thank you ambassador for your 33 years of service to our nation. a big question here today is why you were pushed aside as ambassador. for example, americans know that an employer has a right to fire an employee but shouldn't do it for certain reasons. you shouldn't be fired because you're disabled, because you're a woman, because you're black, and for other reasons. and i think most americans agree that a president shouldn't fire an ambassador or recall an ambassador because the ambassador is standing in his way of doing a corrupt act. so i want to ask you, did the president ever tell you why he was recalling you? >> no. >> did anybody at the white house ever tell you why you were being recalled? >> no. >> did the president ever consult you about who the good guys and the bad guy

mr. fruman who have recently been indicted by the southern district of new york, who indicated that they wanted to change up the ambassador. think they must've at some reason for that. >> and to think they were seeking a different type of ambassador that would allow them to achieve some of their objectives? >> i don't know what other reason there would be. >> okay. is ambassador taylor the type of person who would facilitate those objectives? >> no. >> so basilar tip is a man of high integrity? >> absolutely. >> he's a good pick for the post? >> he is. i would note that he is that charge a out there. so no masochist yet or no candidate has yet been named to the position. >> but he certainly has had a decorated career serving his country? >> absolutely. a man with the highest integrit integrity. >> you testified about when you first learned that mayor giuliani and some of his associates had a concerted campaign against you, when did that first come to your attention? >> we were picking up rumors from ukrainians, i think, kind of in the november-december timeframe within in january, februa

mr. fruman and parnas. they have been indicted. >> those in new york? >> the southern district of new york. >> at the end of march, this effort by giuliani and his associates resulted in a series of articles in the hill publication that were based on allegations, in part, by lutsenko, the corrupt prosecutor general. just to summarize some of these allegations, there were among others, three different categories. one category included the attacks against you which you referenced in your opening statement including that you had bad- bad-mouthed the president and had given the prosecute general a do not prosecute list. there was another that included allegations of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election, and then there was a third related to concerted allegations against burisma and the bidens. is that correct? >> yes. yes. >> were those allegations promo promoted by others associated with the president of the united states? >> they seemed to be promoted by those around mayor giuliani. >> i want to show you a couple of exhibits including a tweet here

mr. fruman who have recently been indicted by the southern district of new york, who indicated that they wanted to change up the ambassador. think they must've at some reason for that. >> and to think they were seeking a different type of ambassador that would allow them to achieve some of their objectives? >> i don't know what other reason there would be. >> okay. is ambassador taylor the type of person who would facilitate those objectives? >> no. >> so basilar tip is a man of high integrity? >> absolutely. >> he's a good pick for the post? >> he is. i would note that he is that charge a out there. so no masochist yet or no candidate has yet been named to the position. >> but he certainly has had a decorated career serving his country? >> absolutely. a man with the highest integrit integrity. >> you testified about when you first learned that mayor giuliani and some of his you testified about when you learned mayor giuliani and some of his associates had a concerted campaign against you, when did that first come to your attention? >> we were picking up rumors from ukrainians. i think k

mr. fruman, who have recently been indicted. >> those were the two who have been indicted in new york. >>s effort by giuliani and his associates resulted in a series of articles in "the hill" publication that were based on allegations in part from lutsenko, the corrupt prosecutor general, and just to summarize some of these allegations, there were among others three different categories. one category included the attacks against you which you referenced in your opening statement, including that you had bad-mouthed the president and had given the prosecutor general a do not prosecute list. there was another that included allegations of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election and then was a third that related to allegations concerning burisma and the bidens. does that -- is that accurate? >> yeah, yes. >> were these articles and allegations then promoted by others associated with the president in the united states? >> they seemed to be promoted by those around mayor giuliani. >> i'm going to show you a couple exhibits including a tweet here by president trump himself on march 20th which

mr. parnas and fruman, to get the naftogaz.ni 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. cuomo news network.

mr. parnas and fruman, who were recently indicted. i think fiona hill actually even made a connection in her testimony about the possibility of parnas and fruman having some involvement in venezuela and that there was some connection there. so, you know, is it just a coincidence that giuliani was meeting with people with respect to venezuela and with respect to ukraine in the same place, or was that something more nefarious, more connected? we don't know right now. but that's one of the things obviously the southern district would be looking into. and when you see a subpoena with eight different crimes listed on it, that's very telling. >> hearing the president say to bill o'reilly to the effect of, you'll have to ask rudy sent a lot of people back to the president in the doorway on air force one, you'll have to ask michael cohen. what is the peril for rudy when the president says something like that? >> look, rudy giuliani, as far as i can tell, is up to his eyeballs in crime. i mean there is -- you know, again, we don't like to try

mr. parnas and fruman, to get the naftogaz.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 dejour. 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 t. 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. cuomo news network. very nice. always a pleasure. one of the best minds in the business. >> that's nice of you. this is going to be a big story with giuliani. talk about bolo, things to look out for, i mean it's not going to end here. you cannot imagine people who are connected to him are just going to be quiet and silent and not try to implicate other people, right? >

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. cuomo news network. very nice. always a pleasure. one of the best minds in the business. >> that's nice of you. this is going to be a big story with giuliani. talk about bolo, things to look out for, i mean it's not going to end here. you cannot imagine people who are connected to him are just going to be quiet and silent and not try to implicate other p

mr. fruman... hurd: sure. yovanovitch: ... and mr. parnas... hurd: (inaudible) yovanovitch: ... when that was apparently to get a -- a meeting for mr. giuliani. hurd: and those are - yeah, but those are not people that were actually in government or became in the zelensky regime. is that correct? yovanovitch: no. hurd: ok. mr. chairman, i yield back. thank you. schiff: mr. castro? castro: thank you, chairman, and thank you, ambassador, for your 33 years of service to our nation. a big question here today is why you were pushed aside as ambassador. for example, americans know that an employer has a right to fire an employee but they shouldn't do it for certain reasons. you shouldn't be fired because you're disabled, because you're a woman, because you're black and for other reasons. and i think most americans agree that a president shouldn't fire an ambassador or recall an ambassador because the ambassador's standing in his way of doing a corrupt act. so i want to ask you did the president ever tell you why he was recalling you? yovanovitch: no. castro: did anybody at the white h

mr. weissman, it's really an honor to meet you. it seems to me like the frumannts and what is reported to be an ongoing criminal investigation of mr. giuliani alongside them, those appear to be parallel and potentially budding case what we see on capitol hill. do you see it that way as well? >> what you just covered with the peter carr announcement and the fraud section, very unusual because what it signals is there's clearly an investigation into rudy giuliani. because normally just because a lawyer has clients who get indicted doesn't mean that you say oh, i'm not going to meet with the lawyer anymore -- >> presumably most of it lawyers you meet with have clients who have been indicted. >> absolutely. all of them do. and it's a very unusual announcement and tells you there is an investigation. one of the reasons there could be real overlap and this is speculation. we don't know what the southern district is doing. but one way you could do that is if you have a case on bribery involving the president. well, the president under doj policy cannot be indicted whil

southern district of new york in hopes of more lenient treatment, i don't know against fruman, against others, against mruliani perhaps. who knows what the angle is. he may have something to say to the law. >> more criminals around the president. roger stone is on trial today, paul manafort is -- i worked in politics a long time, but i've never known any elected officials to have so many criminals in their inner circle. >> and a couple of obvious thugs like those guys. it's kind of a -- it's a joke, right? would you like me to speculate? >> please. >> you know, i think that the president, you know, at this point if you're thinking about who the president has to be worried about, who are you nervous about, you're worried about rudy. because the truth is, that if rudy flipped on the president on this front, on the question of what happened in ukraine, if rudy were under pressure and flipped on the president, the president would be really hosed. i asked the question about to eugene's point, i think they're under a lot of pressure to provide information about everything they did on behalf of rudy giuliani wh

mr. giuliani making these statements. >> some of the associates including indicted folks, igor fruman, lev parnas, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> we have another in chicago indicted, mr. fertash. he was indicted for federal bribery charges and othe. >> that's correct. i know of him from my work, that's correct. >> the question we're all asking, american foreign policy in ukraine is potentially run in their interests, not our own. >> it certainly appears it is being used, sub version of american foreign policy to push these people's personal interests. >> thank you so much. >> that concludes the member questioning. we'll now go to closing statements. mr. nunes. do you have closing remarks? >> thank you. i have stressed in the hearings that the whistle-blower complaint was a pretext for donald trump's political opponents to do what they have been trying to do since he was elected, oust the president from office. brief time line will illustrate the range of extraordinary attacks his administration has faced. i'm going to start in june of 2016 when donald trump was just a candidate. on behalf of the democratic

fruman really are. thy takes pictures with all kinds of people. but john douds's lawyer said, quote, be advised they assisted mrconnection with his reputatiresentation of pres trump. now comes the news parnas and fruman were discussing ukraine with trump as far back as 2018 over dinner. quote, an intimate affair for a handful of big donors in the exclusive suite known as trump's townhouse at trump hotel. told trump at the dinner they thought the u.s. ambassador to ukraine was unfriendly to the president and his interests. according to parnas trump immediately suggested the then ambassador marie yovanovitch should be fired. joining me to talk about that as well as the items found in parnas' personal effects. let me start with this story and move to yours which is fascinating in its own right. it gets harder and harder every day i think to keep the kind of distance between parnas and fruman and trump that clearly the white house would like to keep. >> yeah, and parnas and fruman were really the boots on the ground so to speak in ukraine when it came to trying to pull off this political hit job, i guess, on ambass

mr. giuliani's now indicted associates, lev parnas and igor fruman. so just a couple of questions here. were you aware of any contacts between secretary perry or any other senior d.o.e. officials and representatives of nafta gas? >> i am aware that the secretary met on occasion with individuals who were asking for assistance with the restructuring, if you will, or reorganization of the state-owned enterprise. it's a vertically integrated company. in order for them to connect with the eu, we had conversations about their structure. >> when you say we, were you involved in conversations? >> no, i was not. i was not. the we is the collective we at the department of energy. >> i got you. >> it's not me and the secretary. but no, i am not aware of any conversation that he had with either mr. giuliani or others within the ukraine government about the board or the advisory board that's associated with nafta gas. >> so i'm still a little bit unclear. are you aware of the nature of any communications with nafta gas? because initially you said you knew there were communications. so being the depu

mr. giuliani to discuss a bribery case in which he and the other attorneys were representing the defendants. that meeting took place before u.s. attorneys in manhattan publicly charged two giuliani associates, lev parnas and igor frumance laws and trying to unlawfully influence politicians. here was the statement the doj put out that sunday. quote, when mr. benchkowski and fraud section lawyers met with mr. giuliani, they were not aware of any investigation of mr. giuliani's associates in the southern district of new york. they won have met with him had they own. at the time nobody exactly knew what that meeting was or who this was facing bribery charges, who giuliani got into the justice department. nobody knew what that meeting was about, who that meeting was about. now we know. now we know. turns out according to "the washington post" tonight rudy giuliani was at the justice department that day interceding on behalf of a venezuelan billionaire the justice department is considering bringing criminal charges against in a billion-dollar bribery and money laundering case. giuliani had just come back from a trip to spain where he and lev and igor stayed at this billionaire's lavish estate, quote, on the grounds of an a

mr. giuliani was doing might not be legal especially after people had raised with me these two gentlemen parnas and fruman. the individuals that were indicted several weeks ago for campaign election allegations, that they broke the law. >> another example of how dangerous bolton is to the white house, because the democrats are going to be dying to know why do you describe him as a hand grenade? what's he doing wrong? hear about those concerns. another sign how dangerous he is for them. >> one of the questions i have, bolton obviously knows so much. mick mulvaney knows so much. we haven't heard from either in these depositions. they're both refusing to comply with subpoenas. both saying they won't testify. are we ever going to hear from them? >> such an interesting strategic dilemma house democrats have. one as a practical matter one remedy. go into court and try to compel them. problem is, it takes an eternity. more time than democrats have. tried to force kupperman and the judge said come back in december. december 10th. they don't have that kind of time. the down side we're missing critical parts of thi

mr. giuliani. >> reporter: a source familiar with the matter said federal prosecutors are investigating giuliani's possible business ties to parnas, frumand 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 even russian supported corruption will creep back into ukraine's struggling economy helping russia to further destabilize europe. rooting out corruption is the best way for the u.s. and the west to fight back. he only hopes the leader of his adopted country still believes that. >> that's why people all over t

mr. giuliani making those statements. >> and folks, igor fruman and lev parnas? acter now indicted mr. firtash indicted for federal bribery and another associate of mr. giuliani? >> i know of him from my work. yes, that's kreshcorrect. >> the confquestion we're askin being fl run in their interests and not our to push these people's personal interest. >> thank you so much. >> that concludes the member questioning. i will now go to closing statements. mr. nunes, do you have any closing remarks? >> thank you. i have stressed in these hearings that the whistle-blower complaint was merely a pretext for donald trump's political opponents to do what they have been trying to do since he was elected, oust the president from office. a brief timeline will illustrate the wide range of extraordinary attacks his administration has faced. i'm going to start in june of 2016, when donald trump was just a candidate. on behalf of the democratic national committee and the hillary clinton campaign, fusion gps hires christopher steele to write the steele dossiers, a collection of fals

mr. giuliani was doing might not be legal, especially after, you know, people had raised with me the two gentlemen, parnas and fruman. those are two giuliani associates arrested recently trying to flee the united states. a top ukraine expert on the national security council saying this about the july phone call where president trump urged ukraine's president to help giuliani dig up dirt on the bidens. frankly, up until that call, you know, in certain regards, he was acting as a private citizen, advancing his own interests to a certain extent. it wasn't until that call that it became he was pulled into kind of an official role. let's discuss this. brett broward, assistant fbi director, cory cordero, also with us tonight, former nixon white house counsel john dean, former republican congressman charlie dent. it has been a busy news day going through the transcripts from two top white house officials. carrie, start with you, witness after witness testifying they have these concerns about giuliani. what do you make of this, of all of the officials testifying that they knew what giuliani was up to, they had concerns. >>