lev parnas, he's consulting with parnas about getting rid of the ambassador and he is giving parnas instructions about what to do with the ambassador. how is that not a lie that he doesn't know parnas? >> do we know where that conversation took place, chris? >> maybe. it was sometime in 0.8 political people there, probably a lot of people there. lars lev parnas, maybe his son could have come through the line and in a political event he had a reaction to what parnas said. that does not mean he knows parn parnas. >> they are having a conversation about ukraine. you'll hear it in the tape but contextually, he says he's the problem, parnas does, with the ambassador of ukraine. it's not hike a hi, nice to meet you, here's the problem. that's not what it is. you'll hear it for context. and the president laughs, i'm going to get impeached? get rid of her. i don't care, just do it. you're going to say that that -- >> a little chuckle like that at a political event with other donors present. >> abc says intimate dinner with special donors. >> that can be 40, 50, 60 people in the room. is it

parnas is describing.april 30th, 2018, mike pompeo had, in fact, been senate confirmed just a few days before. mike pompeo, however, had not yet been sworn in officially as secretary of state so, perhaps, that was the source of confusion saying we can't do it yet, mr. pompeo isn't formally in place yet. we don't know. but aside from that detail, i think you would take from mr. parnas' account there that there was, perhaps, an expectation in the white house, perhaps an expectation around the president, that once mike pompeo was fully in charge at the state department, once trump had his guy in there as secretary of state, ambassador yovanovitch would be fired. in the end, it would be another year before that actually happened. >> that was not the only time he fired her because he fired her at least four other occasions that rudy giuliani went to the white house, had conversations with him and then came back and then informed me, victoria, and joe about what transpired. he fired her when he gave an order to

parnas told us in today's interview. you saw mr. parnas say on the air giuliani had made introductions for him with ukraine officials in which he told the ukrainian officials that mr. parnas spoke as a representative of president trump. mr. giuliani denied to us that he ever did that, asked whether mr. parnas was speaking on behalf of the president in ukraine, mayor giuliani told us tonight, quote, never. he also called mr. parnas a, quote, sad situation. this was one big day. tomorrow will be another. see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening. >> really an extraordinary hour. i think a lot of us as we were watching had one fundamental question. why is he doing this? why has he decided to basically turn on his friends in the conspiracy and talk about the conspiracy? >> so what seemed to emerge today when i was talking with him during the course of the interview and talking with him about the fact that he was going to do the interview is that he really believes the more he make

lev parnas says that mr. his top staffer were actually involved in the ukraine scandal in the sense that they were involved in the effort to try to gin up a corruption scandal for joe biden in ukraine. mr. parnas says he helped them in that effort. we contacted congressman nunes's office for comment tonight. we did not receive any reply before air time. we'll let you know if that changes before we're off the air. more ahead, stay with us. (whistling) (whistling) stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm "191including best director, best original screenplay... there's only one way this ends. and best picture of the year. last man standing. go where the new year takes you with t-mobile. get free smartphones when you add new lines. so you can stream like this... ...because we give you that and we also give you that.so you can stargaze like this... game like this adjust this. re-adjust this. and you can do all this, because of

lev parnas explained that to rachel tonight. he explained the reason they needed ambassador yovanovitch to be fired. >> on march 22nd, mr. lutsenko texts you in russian, there's a translation that's provided by the committee. it says, "it's just that if you don't make a decision about madam, you are bringing into question all my allegations including about b." so when he says "madam" is he talking about -- >> ambassador yovanovitch. >> ambassador yovanovitch. >> correct. >> "all my allegations about b." is that about burisma or biden? >> yes. >> do you know if it's burisma or biden? >> it was always biden. nobody cares about burisma. it was the -- the concern was biden, hunter biden. >> in that text message to you is mr. lutsenko saying to you in effect, listen, if you want me to make these biden allegations, you have to get rid of the ambassador. >> absolutely. >> was he threatening if you didn't get rid of the -- >> he actually did. he withdrew it several times. >> joining our discussion now, matt miller, the former spokespers

parnas and mr. fruman at the very end of september, the very beginning of october, right at the start of the formal impeachment inquiry in the house. it was october 3rd when impeachment investigators got a no from lev and igor, no they're not going to help. they got a letter from then lawyer saying those two gentlemen would not cooperate with the request for information. they wouldn't testify. they wouldn't hand anything over. that letter was from their lawyer at the time who was john dowd. you can tell this because the typeface there is comic sans, which is like his signature. john dowd, you'll remember, was president trump's lawyer for a long time in the russia investigation. he at the beginning was representing lev and igor as they were summoned to testify at the impeachment inquiry. stick a pin in that for now. we're going to come back to that in a few minutes. >>> october 3rd john dowd sends a letter, i represent lev and igor and they are not going to cooperate in the impeachment investigation.

robert hyde to lev parnas that indicated mr.had the ambassador under surveillance. rachel asked lev parnas about that repeatedly. >> he appears to be giving you very specific information about the ambassador's movements, about her location, about her security situation, calls her the b word over and over again, very hostile to her and seems to be monitoring her whereabouts. what -- why did those exchanges happen? what was he trying to tell you? >> well, i don't believe it's true. i think he was either drunk or he was trying to make himself bigger than he was. so i didn't take it seriously, and i was trying to -- as you see, i didn't even respond to him most of the time, and if i did, it was something like lol, or okay, or great or, you know, something like that just because i wouldn't respond for a long time, and then i didn't want him to get rowdy if i saw him next time and say why didn't you type a response. >> those texts were taken very seriously last night when they were released last night by the diplomatic corps of the un

parnas and mr.ry important thing in common that they're both facing very serious criminal charges and i think in that case i mean, i'm no lawyer but from cop shows i think it's helpful to be able to say to the intended audience whether it's the judge or the jury or the public at large if you're trying to make your case to them, listen, i was led astray, i was in an environment that felt normal to me at the time but now i realize it was a crazy cultish thing and the scales have fallen from my eyes and now i siee things as they really are. in my cop show version of how persons try to get themselves lean yens, that's one thing. parnas was a key fixer, had a key role in advancing the joe biden malfeasance allegation and trying to turn that into an announcement of an investigation by the ukranian government. he was also super super involved in the marie ivanovich must be fired smear campaign. i asked mr. parnas if he believed the allegations against ivanovich and the allegations against biden that he hel

parnas says mr.oved of the whole ukraine scheme, he says he was directly involved in advising him not to investigate into the ukraine scheme and with signing him up with some other lawyers who lev ultimately fired but who also told him not to cooperate into the investigation into ukraine. >> how did you end up with mr. downing and mr. dowd representing you when the impeachment inquiry had contacted you for testimony? >> that's a good question, rachel. first of all, what happened was we were in vienna when we got notified that we had a congressional what's its called, request. and i was there with victoria and joe degenova and i said what do i do? they said call rudy. i called rudy, said how do we do? his first response was don't worry about it? i was like don't worry about it. you're an attorney, help me get an attorney. rudy said oh great john dowd. we got excited. i didn't know who he was. i knew he was the president's attorney, so he was -- it was an exciting situation, even though all this going

lev parnas says that mr. and his top staffer were actually involved in the ukraine scandal in the sense that they were involved in the effort to try to gin up a corruption scandal for joe biden in ukraine. mr. parnas says he helped them in that effort. we contacted congressman nunes's office for comment tonight. we did not receive any reply before air time. we'll let you know if that changes before we're off the air. more ahead, stay with us. he air. more ahead, stay with us best original screenplay... there's only one way this ends. and best picture of the year. last man standing. (mom vo) we got a subaru to give him some ato reconnect and be together. and once we did that, we realized his greatest adventure is just beginning. (vo) welcome to the most adventurous outback ever. the all-new subaru outback. go where love takes you. stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm >> you raised the issue of ambassador yovanovitch to

but he told you to your face he does not know parnas, he does not know what parnas was doing.ow there is tape that exposes that as untrue. i will play it for you. but first let's bring in our power players. you see i'm here at the table. it's good to have everybody here. first, jimmy, i'll start with you. you defend the president's proposition. the idea of i don't know parnas, i don't know what he was doing. jim schultz, you now have a tape where he obviously knows parnas and he is consulting with parnas about getting arid of the ambassador. >> do we know where that conversation took place, chris? >> uh, maybe. 2018. >> political people there, probably a lot of people there. >> he insisted the secretary of state, maybe his son. >> could've come through the sign and said the things he said and in a political event he had a reaction to what parnas said. that does not mean he knows lev parnas. >> wait a minute? lev parnas says to the president -- they are having a conversation about ukraine. >> how long was that conversation? >> you'll hear it in the tape. we will play it for you

. >>> as lev parnas aftershocks reverberate. >> i don't know parnas other than i guess we had pictures taken. >>> the allegations. >> president trump knew exactly what was good on. >>> the vice president. >> everybody was in the loop. >>> for the attorney general. >> attorney general barr was basically on the team. >>> the rest of trump world. >> you know now he had called my cell phone, and i didn't know his name. >>> plus today's historic scene in the senate. >> you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws, so help you god. [ response ] >>> as the party of trump struggles to implicate the man who gets more and more implicated every day. >> should they consider new -- >> man, you're a liberal hack. >>> and "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes, the senate impeachment trial began today. it began not even 24 hours after lev parnas, an indicted associate of the president's personal lawyer, spoke about how president trump directed this corrupt scheme. that happened yesterday. at the same time, we got hundreds and hundreds of pages o

parnas and others. indiana gop banner in the background. parnas and don jr. at a dinner table. parnas and the president in front of two american flags. it's getting harder for the president to claim he knows nothing about parnas. he keeps trying. he just said this yesterday. >> i don't know him. i don't know parnas. other than i guess they had pictures taken. which i do with thousands of people. just met them. i don't know him. don't know what he's about. don't know where he comes from. >> nope. don't know him. that's an awful lot of evidence. you would think senators want to ask questions about in the trial. witnesses you would think they'd want to question. president republican defenders are still fighting against calling witnesses. even though the president himself said just last month that he loved to have witnesses testify in the senate trial. >> when it's fair and it will be fair in the senate. i would love to have mike pompeo and mick. rick perry. and many other people testify. >> i want them to testify. i want them to testify in the senate. where they'll get fare trial.

parnas last night. but the way it went down there after is that after vice president pence canceled his trip to the zelensky inauguration, within a few days the administration decided they would send another senior official in his defense. so let's pick up the story there. >> that's when we flew to paris, and in paris we met rudy. and when we were in paris with rudy, basically that's when i found out that perry was going to the -- that they decided to send perry there instead. >> rick perry could be going energy secretary. >>. you learned that from mr. giuliani. >> correct. >> was perry aware of what you were trying to do in ukraine, as far as getting the elections announced? >> i don't know about me, what he was told, but definitely he knew about rudy because he called rudy on his way there to ask him what to discuss. rudy told him to make sure to give them the message. >> giuliani told per way what you need to convey to the ukrainian government is they need to announce an investigation and joe biden.

first that parnas smg esuggeste parnas designate he and his partner as special allies and mr. parnas said mr. giuliani walked away to call mr. trump, returned with a new plan. he would represent mr. parnas and mr. fruman as well as the president. why? a move that might afford their shared mission, the confidential of attorney/client privilege. mr. giuliani has denied that account. if that's true, is it legal? >> it's not legal at all. it's actually part of a conspiracy. a conspiracy essentially to obstruct, to obstruct any investigation, as well as to hide from congress and others the information about what giuliani and his associates are doing. keep in mind that giuliani also wrote a document saying he represented the president personally. not as president, but personally. so what that tells us is everything giuliani is doing, and everything parnas and others are doing is to help the president personally. and that reinforces and supports the claim made by the house that the president was trying to get a favor personally for himself that would benefit him in the next election.

then they'll worry about lev parnas later.here will be some elements of the democratic party who want to bring him forward. but there's question about his credibility given he's indicted, someone looking for leniency from the prosecution as well. but nevertheless these documents show parnas was involved in to get rid of the ukrainian ambassador and ways of concerns of tracking her movements as well. that's what these new documents. >> she testified she was concerned about her own security when she was before congress. jim baker, the ukrainian government have launched an investigation into the surveillance of marie yovanovitch. now the state department is going to have an investigation as well. you're former fbi counsel. what do you think? >> absolutely, the u.s. government needs to investigate what was going on here. it's not exactly clear what this surveillance was all about, what were they intending to do, and their intent will matter with respect to criminal violations at the end of the day. but it is very suspicious and th

yesterday parnas talked to our colleague rachel maddow. last night he described in great detail how trump directed him through rudy to pressure ukraine to open investigations on trump's political rival joe biden. he offered more detail just tonight in part two of the interview that goes against trump's claim that he was concerned about corruption in ukraine somehow. parnas described how there were efforts to steer conversations with president zelensky and ukrainian officials toward the topic of the bidens. >> every time somebody would meet zelensky, they would like agree. and then they would walk it back. so they want something about corruption, but giuliani blew his lid on that saying that's not what we discussed. it wasn't supposed to be corruption announcement, it has to be about joe biden and hunter biden and burisma. >> he said the name biden needs to be spoken when he said that? >> oh -- >> parnas straight up alleged tonight the former secretary of energy rick perry had been told by rudy to convince the ukrainian government to announ

now, we're hearing the part of parnas's story that involves the energy secretary, rick perry, whom parnas said giuliani recruited after other attempts to pressure ukraine failed. >> harry says i spoke with zelensky and i got him to agree to announce the investigation. >> yeah, and they did the announcement, but they didn't announce that. this was the whole key, every time somebody would meet zelensky, they would like agree and then they would walk it back. they announced something about corruption, but giuliani blew his lid on that saying that's not what we discussed. it wasn't supposed to be a corruption announcement, it has to be about joe biden, and hunter biden and burisma. >> he said the name biden's name needs to be spoken. >> always. >> parnas described the multiple attempts to fire marie yovanovitch. >> about firing her, i spoke to the president once about that, or twice. once or twice. once directly the at our dinner when he fired her actually at the dinner which was the most surprising thing ever. >> tell me more about that. >> basically at that dinner, we had a conversation, th

and nunes initially pretend he didn't really know parnas at all. and i think, you know, these messages really do corroborate the story that parnas has been telling about how he was working with rudy giuliani and others and with devin nunes. and i think the picture, if i could add one thing to what josh said that these messages show is, it really paints a picture of how trump was able to take some of the most unethical and dishonest people from all different spheres of washington, d.c. from inside his administration. from capitol hill. private attorneys that show up on fox news all the time who he used in this plot that show up in these text messages, as well as journalists. for example, john solomon. able to take all these people and use them in this plot to -- to -- to discredit and smear and ultimately remove a u.s. ambassador. it's the type of thing you might expect to see in a non-democratic country where there is not really separation of powers. it's not what you expect to see in the united states. >> josh -- josh, let me ask you about some re

this guy parnas is playing to advantage.e'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 monday. the power team is here with their take. not easy to say. try it yourself. next. (janine) ghostbusters!... of course i'd love to take an informal poll. i used to be a little cranky. dealing with our finances really haunted m

and parnas says president trump knew exactly what was going on. >>> also, very important, parnas says he's willing to testify and says that along with former national security adviser john bolton, he can, quote, fill in all the dots in the impeachment case. >> and the stunning interview comes at the very same time that president trump's senate impeachment trial is about to begin in washington. now do senators want to hear from witnesses? now do they want to see all of the new evidence that's come to light since the president was impeached last month? well, in just hours, the senate will formally receive those articles of impeachment. this afternoon the chief justice of the supreme court will administer the oath to senators who will serve as jurors. he will swear them to deliver impartial justice. and we also have breaking news that we just reported moments ago. ukraine has just announced opening a criminal investigation into claims that former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch was being spied on by a u.s. congressional candidate and trump supporter. ukraine is asking for th

more information about lev parnas. there will be a new lev parnas every day. earlier today it was an even bigger story that the government accountability office said they broke the law in withholding the aid. it is a win whether they should even have witnesses for a legitimate trial to occur. you need someone from the white house. maybe john bolton. someone from the state department like pompeo who has overseen the removal of the ambassador and someone from the office of budget that held up the money. that ha a minimum. >> well, okay. frank. where do we go from here. frank, this is an ad, an anti-trump republican group put out against senator corey gardner of colorado. watch this. >> the only thing you will fight for is trump. you are another trump servant. weak. frightened. >> a small man terrified of a political bully. so scared of his tweets you will do anything trump orders. blocking witnesses, breaking your oath to follow the constitution and the law. >> that is an anti-trump republican group. these are the types of ads vulnerable republicans are facing.

do you believe parnas?> listen, i don't know, you know, whether lev parnas is completely credible except for the fact that everything that he he said is consistent with the testimony given by the witnesses in the house. we have known for a long time that everyone involved in u.s.-ukraine policy was working toward the same goal, and that goal was to get the ukrainians to interfere in the 2020 election and to withhold access to the white house and withhold access to taxpayer funded aid. parnas fills in the details about how that was operationalized but nothing is inconsistent with the testimony from the house. so in that regard, he looks like a very credible witness. >> i think it's likely that if he's on the stand, he gets sliced up like cheese given what else he is accused of. but the documents will stand on their own. i just don't know how you guys, you men and women, can honor the oath and ignore testing all this stuff. it seems to be by definition the job. senator chris murphy, obviously literally the wo

but be cautious about parnas.as striking to me is all the series of questions that were not asked of him, starting with the criminal charges that he is facing in the southern district of new york. i presume that part of the ground rules is he was not going to answer questions about that. but that is clearly the driving force for him coming forward. in fact, his lawyer made it clear, in a separate interview with the "new york times," that this is all about trying to cut a deal with federal prosecutors in the southern district. >> michael, i get that and there's a lot of questions about that, but my question is, why would he add perjury to his list of charges he is now facing? why would he continue to lie? why would he not tell the truth? >> well, first of all, he was not under oath in his -- >> true, but he might be if he's called as a witness. >> no, he would have to cop to a guilty plea in order to get any kind of deal from the southern district. he would have to admit, yes, he was guilty of the charges that he's

parnas and mr.e guy? >> clearly the lawyers representing the president -- >> the president consents to allowing your representation of mr. parnas and mr. furman. >> there was concern -- >> furman, excuse me. >> there was concern about this relationship that parnas had with the president at the time, so much concern that john dowd, which we will all remember him from the mueller investigation, he was very much involved in representing the president at that time, he was concerned of this relationship that he felt he needed to bring it to the president's current attorney, jay sekulow, and say, i'm going to represent these guys, is there a problem? there's a reason why that happened. >> to me the big question is why would donald trump need to consent to who furman and parnas had -- >> that's my question i had. is there any scenario where an attorney, sekulow in this case, would speak to a client like the president about approving representation to a total stranger? >> it's all about circling the wagon.

parnas is describing. . text messages and other documents released by the white house this week as well as congressional testimony during the ip peachmempeachment inquir. mr. parnas explained to me he was in contact with sergei shaffer that's bolstered by the string of text messages between parnas and sergei shaffer that's made public by the impeachment investigators. mr. parnas told me he was given mr. shaffer's number and he got in touch with him when he was in ukraine on may 11th. that checks out. here is that text message, written may 11th. it is written in russia. the intelligence committee translated it. good evening, my name is lev parnas, i am a friend of rudy giuliani, please call me back. thank you. nine minutes later, he had the connection he was bragging about. rudy giuliani sent the previous say to president-elect zelensky. this is something that somebody connected to rudy giuliani would have. lev sent over that letter to establish. mr. shaffer responds, understood, thank you. the following morn

parnas wanted her gone because lev parnas was doing allegedly corrupt things. so let's listen to a little bit more of this new audiotape. >> the biggest problem, though, i think we need to start is we've got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration. >> the ambassador [ bleep ] -- i mean -- >> basically walk around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached. just wait. >> really? >> it's incredible. >> get rid of her. get her out tomorrow -- i don't care, get her out tomorrow. take her out, okay? do it. >> take her out, okay, do it. laura, legally speaking, as a lawyer, would you like to have this new evidence as parts of your trial? >> i would like this in a lot more. the "get her out" obviously should be shocking. this is how he's talking about a career diplomat to two people that giuliani has cup ties today to do his bidding, fixers in the ukraine. i think the most importance part of the abc reporting is these tapes are in the hands of the southern district of new york. we don't know what else they have. th

parnas and yuriy lutsenko. what parnas and rudy giuliani wanted, the investigation into biden, and what lutsenko wanted, which was the removal of marie yovanovitch. >> you spent three years reporting in ukraine. you are familiar with the cast of characters here before you came to the talking points memo. it makes the story make more sense than in the past because the obsession with yovanovitch never quite was that clear to me why her. like why the obsession with her. and what you see from this is it is not their obsession with yovanovitch. it is lutsenko's obsession with yovanovitch and they are trying to pay his pry for cooperation. >> it is his obsession that really drives parnas and by extension rudy giuliani to push for her removal. the texts pick up in early march. yovanovitch gave a speech calling for the firing of a top deputy of lutsenko's and criticizing him directly for failing to fight corruption. he's directing parnas she demanded that he be fired. she's criticizing me. and before the articles on ma

and will lev parnas -- do democrats want lev parnas to be called?edibility issues. if witnesses happen, then witnesses could happen on the other side. do the bidens get dragged back into this? so it is very complex calculations on all sides now. parnas saying he didn't directly talk with the president about this strategy. but the fact that he was engaged or connected with the president so many times on the phone with giuliani so many times where giuliani would say, hang on, things would go quiet does suggest that if democrats and a key number of republicans in the senate want to pull that thread, they can. but it's unclear what will happen at the end of it. >> but to susan collins' question about why now, why is this happening? shouldn't the house have dealt with that? here's the answer. this comes from marshall cohen. here is the context she's ignoring. the department of justice seized parnas' phones and other materials when he was arrested in october. before he got the house subpoena. parnas only recently got his devices back from the doj and secu

whether it's from lev parnas or mr.on, the former national security adviser. so i think that all taken together, it seems to me that at least four senate republicans may be able to say, well, we need to hear more. the question for the democrats is, well, okay, if the republicans say we'll give you a witness or two, then what do the democrats have to give? do they then have to say, uh, okay, we'll let you talk about to hunter biden? i don't think that's going to happen, because he's irrelevant to this case, but you know republican are going to be asking for it. >> gloria borger, david gerg one-on-one thanks very much. >>> more on the question of whether marie yovanovitch was being surveilled and by whom. some of my best memories growing up were cooking with mom. she always said, "food is love," so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ i want to make the most of every meal we have together. ♪ at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today.

mimi was talking about parnas, all talking about parnas. shady guy. allegations. you do -- what do we do as a country now thinking about the jurors in the trial? otherwise known as united states senators? because in any legal aspect here, you're going to get shady people on the stand. you're going to get allegations on the stand. that just happens every single day in courtrooms across this country. what do we do about united states senators/jurors who have already said, you know, there's nothing here? >> i think that what you're going to do is you're going to have the public now, particularly after parnas' interview, and bolton saying that he wanted to testify, demand that we want to see a trial. the irony is, rudy giuliani, who has bragged about how he broke the mob, how he was the one that had stopped the mob, that he prosecuted them successfully, how did he do it? he got mobsters to turn on them. he had the mob's parnas' to testify against them. now you have parnas, prepared to testify against him. out of the giuliani schoolbook. he's using his own method of gi

he's close to parnas.rly on their radar, clearly -- >> right. >> -- on the ins with these people. at the same time he wants to inflate his reputation. >> yes. >> and try to get on their good side and might explain those texts as well. >> right. there appears to be documentary evidence of him being in the circumstance b l of prominent republicans even after the incident in doral. he appears to have been at the baseball game, the world series the president attended with kevin mccarthy. there's a video i think i saw about that. also just one more thing, yovanovitch was on his radar screen. he tweeted this when she was testifying. "we elected president trump to drain the swamp of traitors like this. maria is a huge p.o.s. she has so much dirt on the clintons and bidens. such a scumbag. #draintheswamp. maria is a traitor. trump 2020. hyde 2020." he knew who she was and was tweeting along with her testimony. natasha bertrand, thanks for your time tonight. >>> ahead, new evidence to get a meeting with vladimolody

so this works in parnas's favor. the fact he's turning information over while he's still under indictment. and that could conceivably be used against him. certainly his statements tonight. these are factors that tend to build credibility for him. >> robert costa, let me show you a moment as we recorded it tonight on fox news. >> if the prosecution brings a witness, if they bring john bolton, then president trump can bring a witness. he can bring in hunter biden. >> robert, what's the real chance we'll see a kind of tit for tat calling of witnesses? what's the chance that could blow up in the faces of the republicans in the senate and in plain english what do you do if you're susan collins, you're at home tonight watching the interview we saw on the air? do you say lev parnas raises no questions in my mind, i'm good, i have no further questions? >> it's going to be a test for these senators because you're going to have at first a phase one of the trial and then a couple weeks in the negotiations of the witnesses and t

there's so much to unpackage in what parnas told rachel maddow. it's more that the request was never about corruption it was about the investigation into joe biden and burisma because that defeats any argument that the president was acting under his article ii power to root out corruption wherefore it may lie, and so all of these threats as you put it, that pence may have been in on it, that is very compelling because the evidence that pence cancelled this trip to the inauguration is key that there was a punishment actually imposed. that's why that is so significant. do what we want, or else you won't get what you want, ukraine, and let me give you an example. i believe to paraphrase rudy giuliani, parnas said something or there was an interview, we'll see what happens or we'll show them. something to that effect. we'll see. and that's exactly what happened, and those kinds of consequences in the context of federal prosecution are key in showing things like quid pro quo and cause and effect, which are so important because rarely are these agreemen

and rudy giuliani sent a letter to parnas's lawyer how the president okayed parnas working by himselforking with the president. >> okay. there has been a lot of structure put around the theories about what's going on with the president and zelensky and parnas. but what you see coming out now are just more and more facts that are substantiating what everybody has been saying all along. we have not seen any facts except for denials like the president said today, just sort of broad denials. that's counter-acting any part of the narrative that the democrats have been saying thus far. and that's what -- you for example at a certain point you have to look at what all the building blocks are building. i think that's what is happening here. there is just nothing on the other side factually to counter-act the narrative that is coming out. >> there are a number of documents, we just said it, that the house has that potentially will back up what parnas is saying. he has notes on ritz-carlton paper from kiev. he's got a letter from rudy giuliani to president zelensky when president zelensky was s

parnas? >> i don't know him. i don't know him other than i had pictures taken which i do thousands of people including today i did not meet. i don't know him at all, don't know what he's about. don't know where he comes him and nothing about him. >> he's trying to make a deal with rudy giuliani. i guess he attempted -- i took a picture with him. i take thousands of pictures with people. thousands during the course of the year. i don't know him or perhaps he's a fine man or i know nothing about him. >> it is more than just taking pictures. >> i don't know him. >> trump's friendly daily mail of all places took the liberty put a photo collage of some of the photos of the two men together. tl lawyer p the lawyer of parnas released this video back in mar-a-lago and parnas offered new details of what the president repeated effort to fire our u.s. ambassador, marie yovanovitch. >> he fired her -- at least four our five times. he even breaks down and screams to fire her. and then he said there presid

president trump has denied knowing parnas but parnas says he is

parnas.> what is your response to lev parnas that says your efforts in ukraine were all about 2020? you just wanted joe biden out? what is your response? >> well, i don't know parnas other than they had pictures taken which i do with thousands of people. i don't know him at all. i don't know what he's about. i don't know where he comes from. i know nothing about him. but i can tell you this. >> it's more than taking pictures. >> i don't know him. i don't believe i've ever spoken to him. >> he said you were on the phone with guiliani, he said -- >> i don't believe i've ever spoken to him. >> responding to parnas' lawyer a tweet of a video showing parnas right there with the president of the united states. he is very recognizable. there is also an e-mail showing the president gave his former lawyer the okay to work for parnas. while trump's current attorney wrote john dowd says the president consents to allowing your representation of mr. parnas. betsy, the stuff goes back to the old stuff of t

when you listen to lev parnas, it seems to me that lev parnas should be at least deposed. >> yes. >> easily be deposed over the course of this weekend. >> uh-huh. >> and see when he's under oath and he's challenged and deposition -- >> right. >> lawyers from both sides. >> yep. >> let them be challenged by the other side and see what happens. >> yeah, and i think senator schumer said he didn't rule that out today, but the point is right now they aren't giving us any witnesses and i think the more this information comes forward, everything from the inspector general's report to what we heard in this interview, to the information that just keeps coming at us that we already had from the house, it is outrageous that we are not getting a trial yet. and my colleagues, you know, i look across from, literally a few yards away, this is their moment to decide and at the same time, you have the press being blocked out from certain parts of this. and a whole bunch of bad stuff going on that doesn't feel like it's a fair trial. >> the republicans, some republicans are saying, well, if you get jo

in fact, this is a recurring theme, no one will admit they know lev parnas, and lev parnas seems to have a photo with everybody. here he is with the president's son eric. and with the president's daughter ivanka, and son-in-law jared, and vice president mike pence, and counselor to the president kellyanne conway, republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy, sarah huckabee sanders, here he is with her dad, for some reason, mike huckabee. everybody knew lev or at the very least everybody took a picture with lev, and according to what we told rachel this week everything lev did was done at the direction of the president and everyone knew about it. >> president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all my movements. he -- i wouldn't do anything without the consent of rudy giuliani or the president. i'm going to use a famous quote by mr. sutherland, everybody was in the loop. >> everybody was in the loop. that is a theme of all the evidence accruing over the past four weeks. it is more than that. the operation, the scheme for which the president has been impeached, for whi

, at least one video of parnas and the president.t has my attention, peter, is this is a variance from the president's usual approach of i did it. so what? russia f you have the emails or china should investigate the bidens as well. or it was a perfect call. here's the summary. now we're seeing the exact opposite. now it's i don't know the guy. when someone varies from their usual m.o., you should pay attention and i think parnas has him very nervous. my theory is because parnas is the guy who can actually say none of this ukraine stuff was ever about corruption. and by the way, i'm one step away from the president because i'm working for rudy giuliani. and the problem is he prereally needs to be careful because he doesn't know what parnas has up his sleeve. does he have voice mails and videotapes? or recordings he's saving for later? maybe for sdny? and the president is taking a big gamble. veering from his usual strategy and he's denying. i think it's going to cost him eventually. >> as parnas told rachel, this was always about joe

lev parnas says mr.op staffer were involved in the effort to gin up a corruption scandal for joe widen in ukraine. mr. parnas says he helped them in that effort. we contacted congressman nunes' office, we did not receive any reply before air time. we will let you know if that changes before we're off air. more after this. >>> why are we doing this? why are we doing what? using my old spice moisturize with shea butter body wash... all i wanted was to use your body wash and all i wanted was to have a body wash. . >> i do actually before i go i want to bring you some news we got moments ago, while we have been on the air tonight in the past couple minutes, we got a response from former mayor mr. guiliani mr. parnas told us in today's interview. you heard him say on the air guiliani had made introductions with ukrainian officials in which he said he told the officials that mr. parnas spoke as a representative of president trump. mr. guiliani tonight denied to us that he ever did that, asked whether mr. parna

that he had an aide that was in close contact with lev parnas. and so what these new documents really show is that -- how deep the tentacles were in this -- in this, you know, irregular channel of people who were trying to, you know, get rid of yovanovitch. who were working very closely with rudy giuliani, who was working very closely with the president. >> leigh anne, what about these newly released photos showing parnas with ivanka and jared? >> the president is saying he doesn't know parnas and with these new photos, it shows that -- that -- that parnas has been in close, at least, proximity to the president's children. ivanka, jared. there is pictures with don jr., as well. so we don't know really what was happening in these pictures at this time. but he has a lot of pictures with the president, with the president's associates, with the president's family. and so it just -- just, you know, makes it much more difficult to believe the president when he says he doesn't know parnas and he hasn't come into contact with him. and as i said, this is

parnas is describing. quote, text messages and other documents released by the house this week as well as congressional testimony during the impeachment inquiry corroborate the time line that parnas detailed in interviews about the episode. mr. parnas explained to me that he was in contact with a very senior ukrainian government official named sergei schaffer. that, in fact, is bolstered by the string of text messages by parnas and schaffer. mr. parnas told me he was given mr. schaffer's number and he first got in touch with him when he was in ukraine on may 11th. well, turns out that checks out. here's that text message written may 11th from lev parnas to sergei schaffer. it's written in russian. the intelligence committee has translated it as, good evening, sergei. my name is lev parnas. i'm a friend of rudy giuliani. please call me back. thank you. nine minutes later, to prove who he was and that he had the connections he was bragging out, lev sent along to schaffer a copy of a letter that giuliani had

we can't ignore parnas has a serious credibility problem.r indictment for campaign finance charges. he doesn't trust a word. i-see people on social media acting as if he's the second coming of theodore roosevelt. >> it's true. all those reasons are why people should want him to testify under oath. kellyanne conway, when he's talking on television, he isn't under oath. there's a way to get him under oath. it's not clear at this point that republicans are interested in hearing his claim. it's also not clear what sort of evidentiary record he has. there's been this huge document dump and some of them have come out. you heard from schiff saying they are still going over some of these documents. it's not clear if he has documents or if he's essentially a lot of the information that came out on the impeachment hearing from all of the hours of testimony. that essentially sent the same thing. this was a political errand to use fiona hill's argument. some did suggest that trump knew. how he would know what's in trump's hand is unclear. but it might b

rudy giuliani associate lev parnas. parnas is now speaking out and directly implicating the president in ukraine -- in using ukraine pressure, a campaign at the center of this impeachment charge. let's go to our congressional correspondent, phil mattingly, another momentous day in the impeachment of the president. first of all, take us through what we saw. >> reporter: no question about that. it started today with the seven house democratic impeachment managers walking those two articles of impeachment over to the united states senate floor and when they arrived, it set off a series of events, a series of somber events that have only been seen three times as it relates to the president in the country's history. take a watch. >> all persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the house of representatives is exhibiting to the senate of the united states, articles of impeachment against donald john trump, president of the united states. >> the managers on the part of the house will now proceed. >> do

he didn't say parnas called my office. he said parnas called my cell phone. i don't get lots of random calls on my cell phone. the only people who call my cell phone are people to whom i have given my number. nunes strikes me like lots of liars strike me. they tell you as much as you think you are going to find out on your own. when you find out more they suddenly remember another fact they think is material to your inquiry. i have seen it before. i hate to sound jaded but i have seen it before. >> let's listen to nunes on rachel's show last night. >> does it strike you as unusual or inappropriate that nunes would be one of the lead investigators into the this scandal? >> i was in shock when i was watching the hearings and i saw nunes sitting up there and there was a picture where harvey was in back over there sitting. i texted my attorney. i said i can't believe this is happening. >> because? >> well, because they were involved in getting all the stuff on biden. i mean derek harvey had several interviews. it is hard to see them lie like that when you know it

we've seen pictures of parnas. we have heard stories about parnas and giuliani. we have seen the transcript of the president leaning on the president of ukraine to investigate the bidens. but what you have here from parnas that we didn't have before is you have someone who witness, a sworn witness saying that i was ukrainians way back as february and january and then through may that aid in other things were tied to the investigation of the bidens. >> if you're trying to figure out what took place, you would want to have him as a witness. you would want to have him under penalty of percentage saying all this. to your question to about why now, the judge's decision is the main one. it was interesting to me that the sdny did not object to him turning over this material. that suggests to me is they don't think that is that relevant to their investigation or it doesn't pose a problem. but when we go to why now, there is some theory of why he could be doing this right now is because he is trying to look as if he is being helpful as he is under indictment. we saw micha