not just about the bidens or a dnc server hidden in ukraine, about the money, fight for control of naftogaznd natural gas resources. >> reporter: parnas and fruman may have began their plan in 2018 higher guiliani f$2018 higa million and the indictment says that began getting hundreds of,0of thousands of dollars and giving them access to president trump. both have been found ng. parnas told the president he needed to replace his u.s. ambassador to ukraine and trump agreed. this would make sense except parnas and fruman had zero row experience in the gas business and could not have acted alone. >> parnas and fruman with no background in the oil gas resources area all of a sudden decided to form a country which you can only do in ukraine or russia really with the blessing of the powers that be, in this case, this would be feartash. >> reporter: he is an oligarch connected with an oil fortune in ukraine. he was charged in a bribery scheme in 2013. he declared his innocence and hired prominent washington lawyers to lobby the trump administration to drop his case. attorneys for parnas and fruman

it's a fight for control of naftogaz and resources. >> parnas hired giuliani for half a million dollars. a federal indictment alleged they also began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to republican causes, giving them incredible access to political fundraising events including at least ten with president trump. both have pleaded not guilty. "the washington post" even reports lev parnas told the president he needed to replace his u.s. ambassador to ukraine, and trump reportedly agreed. this would all make perfect sense except for one thing: parnas and fruman had zero experience in the gas business and could not have acted alone. >> parnas and fruman with no background in the oil, gas, natural resources area all of a sudden decided to form a company which you can only do in ukrainian or russia really with the blessing of the powers that be. and in this case it would be feartaj. >> a kremlin oligarch who made a fortune selling gas to ukraine. he's been fighting extradition to the united states since 2013 when he was charged in a bribery scheme. he's declared his in

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.

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? >

one of them. >> at a deposition you said naftogaz comes up in every conversation; is that fair? >> probably. >> you had -- i guess dr. hill at one point attributed to you the terminology that the president has given you a large remit. are you familiar with her assertion of that? >> i didn't understand what she was talking about. >> okay. but we have -- and you got into this a little bit in your deposition, you know, you said that the president gave you a special assignment with regard to ukraine, correct? >> well, when the president appointed me as u.s. ambassador to the european union, ukraine was part of my portfolio. what happened my assignment largerap than just being part o my portfolio were the unique circumstances where there was no current sitting ambassador in ukraine and there was a new president in ukraine. and the discussions that we had, the three amigos, perry, volker, andy, i, was that ukraine neede extraordinary, as highra level support asex it could get from e united states during this period,ri which we cleared with both c ambassador bolton and wi chief of staf

were trying to force out at the ukrainian government-controlled natural gas monopoly, this company, naftogaz, the guy they were trying to throw out, specifically the individual person they were targeting to get out of there, was the guy who was determined to move ukraine from importing 93% of its natural gas from russia to importi ining zero percent of i natural gas from russia. i wonder who wouldn't like that. i wonder who'd be interested in stopping that kind of a guy and getting him out of the ceo job at the big natural gas company in ukraine. i mean, russia is pumping natural gas into ukraine, i mean, they're probably giving them 93% of what that nation imports. and this -- this new guy, clean as they come, fearless, determined, anti-corruption guy, decides, actually, no, you crane is going to start importing zero natural gas from russia. we're going to zero that out. no longer doing that with rus a russia. i wonder who might want to stop that. again, we do not know much about who they were working for but do know that lev at least was being paid to work on the legal defense team of this

and he called in a bunch of advisers, and one of them was the head of the state-run gas firm naftogaze talking about earlier. and another was an american former obama administration official amos hochstein who was on the supervisory board of naftogaz. and he flew in for this meeting to give advice because clearly the newly elected, but not yet inaugurated, president zelenski was concerned and didn't know how to navigate this strange situation. >> in terms of? so sorry, go ahead. don't let me interrupt. >> no, no, it's okay. so he -- hochstein then briefed at least three officials in the embassy, and some of them took notes. in the notes apparently which were circulated in email, they said that the meeting had been called to discuss energy matters as a sort of cover story so that zelensky could actually ask about these political issues. >> do we know whether these notes remain in the possession of the individuals who took them? do we know if they're being held by the state department? obviously that's important since the state department isn't responding to subpoenas and it seems like

question, "you mentioned earlier naftogaz." answer yes. >> question: what is that? answer, "it's the gas monopoly owned by the government of ukraine." question, "has it had corruption issues in the past to your knowledge?" answer, "it has. you know, it has really cleaned up its act. i mean, we consider it to be one of the success stories in ukraine. that doesn't mean it's done. there are still issues going forward." question, "did the cleaning up occur in conjunction with the fact that they added a supervisory board to the company?" answer, "i think that was important, but i think the most important thing was actually the head of naftogaz, a guy by the name of andriy kobolyev." sorry, i'm not saying that right. andriy kobolyev. i think that's how you say it. k-o-b-o-l-y-e-v. ambassador yovanovitch says, "you know, he's as clean as they come, and fearless, and determined to sort of shake everything up. and he really made some amazing steps forward. i mean, from a country that was getting the vast majority, something like 93% of its gas to russia, to ukraine importing

it might have been naftogaz because we're working on another issue with naftogaz so that might have been one of them. >> at one point in your deposition i believe you said naftogaz comes up at every conversation. is that fair? >> probably. >> you had -- i guess dr. hill at one point attributed to you the terminology that the president has given you a large remit. are you familiar with her assertion of that? >> i didn't understand what she was talking about. >> okay. >> but you have and we got into this a little bit in your deposition, you know, you said that the president gave you a special assignment with regard to ukraine, correct? >> well, when the president appointed me to the -- as the u.s. ambassador to the european union, ukraine was part of my portfolio. what made my assignment larger than just being part of my portfolio were the unique circumstances where there wascu ukraine and there was a new president in ukraine and the discussions that we had, the three amigos, perry, volker and i, ukraine needed extraordinary, as high level support as it could get from the united states dur

believe you said naftogaz comes up in every conversation. >> i believe so. dr. hill related to you the terminology that the president has given you a large remit. >> i didn't understand what she was talking about. >> okay. but you have, and we got into this a little bit in your deposition, you said the president gave you a special assignment with regard to ukraine, correct? >> well, when the president appointed me to the -- as the u.s. ambassador to the european union, ukraine was part of my portfolio. what made my assignment larger than just being part of my portfolio were the unique circumstances were there were no current sitting ambassador in ukraine and there was a new president in ukraine. and the discussions we had, the three amigos, perry, volker and i, is that ukraine needed extraordinary, as high level support as it could get from the united states during this period, which we cleared with both ambassador bolton and chief of staff mulvaney to continue working on it. so by extension, yes, if the national security adviser and the chief of staff appro

believe you said naftogaz comes up in every conversation. >> i believe so. dr. hill related to you the terminology that the president has given you a large remit. >> i didn't understand what she was talking about. >> okay. but you have, and we got into this a little bit in your deposition, you said the president gave you a special assignment with regard to ukraine, correct? >> well, when the president appointed me to the -- as the u.s. ambassador to the european union, ukraine was part of my portfolio. what made my assignment larger than just being part of my portfolio were the unique circumstances were there were no current sitting ambassador in ukraine and there was a new president in ukraine. and the discussions we had, the three amigos, perry, volker and i, is that ukraine needed extraordinary, as high level support as it could get from the united states during this period, which we cleared with both ambassador bolton and chief of staff mulvaney to continue working on it. so by extension, yes, if the national security adviser and the chief of staff appro

it's a fight for control of naftogaz and the natural resources. >> reporter: parnas and fruman may have their plan in 2018. parnas hired giuliani for $500,000. a federal indictment alleges they also began donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to republican causes, giving them incredible access to political fund-raising events, including at least ten with president trump. both have pleaded not guilty. "the washington post" even reports lev parnas told the president he needed to replace his u.s. ambassador to ukraine and trump reportedly agreed. this would all make perfect sense, except for one thing. parnas and fruman had zero experience in the gas business and could not have acted alone. >> parnas and fruman, with no background in the oil, gas, natural resources area, all of a sudden decided to form a company, which you can only do in ukraine or russia, really, with the blessing of the powers that be. and in this case, this would be feartash. >> reporter: feartash is dmitry feartash, a russian-connected oligarch who has been fighting extradition to the united states

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

brouillette referring to when he acknowledged that perry held meetings on seeking changes at naftogaz. when and where did those meetings take place. who outside the department did secretary perry speak to regarding changes in naftogaz and the substance of those communications. and then whether department staff were involved in meetings at which changes to naftogaz leadership came up, who the staff were, and what materials were produced. mr. president, here i'll just make it clear, i find it implausible that the secretary of energy just was unstaffed on all this. i would think for an important meeting like this, the secretary -- secretary perry would have individuals from the department of energy who were involved in these discussions with mr. -- that mr. brouillette has now acknowledged took place. but we can't get any names. we can't get any answers at all. and i think it is serious -- seriously an error for the senate to just rush to this nomination without getting answers to the questions that i have outlined. indictments are flying. investigations reveal major wrongdoing. every st