Lev Parnas appeared in federal court in New York on December 2, 2019.Scott Hines/Getty Images
A Republican billionaire donor is helping to finance the travel expenses of Rudy Giuliani's indicted colleague Lev Parnas, who is investigating political support for President Donald Trump. The plan was to put pressure on the Ukrainian government to make an announcement.
House Democrats on Wednesday released WhatsApp messages between Parnas and Florida-based oil and shipping magnate Harry Sargent III as part of a trove of documents recently obtained from Parnas. These messages showed that Sargent had helped pay for some of Parnas' travel expenses and supported Parnas and Giuliani's efforts to persuade Trump to fire Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. There is. Mr. Parnas and Mr. Giuliani said they believed removing Ms. Yovanovitch would help pressure the Ukrainian government to provide dirt on Mr. Trump's enemies. Mr. Sargent financially supported Mr. Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign and is friendly with the former New York mayor. Officials said the sergeant met Parnas through Giuliani.
In a statement Wednesday, Chris Kiss, an attorney representing Sargent, acknowledged that the billionaire had lent Parnas some of his travel expenses. Kise says that Sergeant expected to be paid back and suggests that Sergeant may have been deceived by Parnas.
“It is clear from the documents that Mr. Sargent lent Mr. Lev Parnas a small amount of money for travel expenses after Mr. Parnas claimed, perhaps falsely, that he was bankrupt and promised to repay the funds. ''Kise said. “However, despite Mr. Sargent's repeated requests and Lev Parnas' promises of continued repayment, Mr. Parnas never repaid these costs.'' cited an Aug. 26 message urging charter airline owners to repay their debts.
If accurate, Kise's statements suggest that Sargent was one of several wealthy individuals whom Parnas persuaded to help finance his jet-flying lifestyle. Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash is believed to have paid Parnas more than $1 million last year. Parnas also has a string of debts in Florida, where he lives, including a $350,000 loan from a couple he says he persuaded to help finance the film. They sued Parnas, accusing him of deceiving them.
Previous reports have revealed that the sergeant had been in contact with Mr. Parnas over the last year, and Mr. Parnas's frenetic activities include large campaign contributions to Mr. Trump and other Republicans. , regular trips to Ukraine to help Mr. Giuliani pressure Ukrainian authorities, and pursuing business deals in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The sergeant-at-arms downplayed his relationship with Parnas and denied involvement in Parnas and Giuliani's Ukraine conspiracy.
In a WhatsApp message on April 2, 2019, Parnas asked Sargent to “authorize” him to pay for the car service, adding: “I got the deal from Rudy's guy.” “Don’t worry about this,” the sergeant told Parnas. It is not clear whether he approved the expense.
About a week later, Parnas apparently complained to Sargent that a trip he had supposedly planned and billed Sargent for had been cancelled. Parnas said he planned to meet with Giuliani and suggested the cancellation would disrupt plans to meet “in Vienna on Saturday.”
“It's just expensive to fly you everywhere in LEVs,” replied Sgt.
It is not clear whether Parnas took this opportunity to visit Vienna or with whom he planned to meet. But in June, Parnas met in Vienna with Ukrainian gas tycoon Firtash, who is under house arrest while fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces federal bribery charges. Parnas told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday that during that meeting, he urged Firtash to agree to the deal. Mr. Firtash hired a husband-and-wife legal team of Mr. Trump allies Joe diGenova and Victoria Tensing, and their connections were used to push Attorney General William Barr to dismiss Mr. Firtash's lawsuit. Ta. In exchange, Mr. Firtash will help dig up dirt on Mr. Trump's political opponents in Ukraine.
As bizarre as it may sound, some of this suggestion appears to have been implemented. Firtash replaced his American lawyers with Toensing and diGenova in July. In late August, the two men secured a meeting with Barr and asked the Justice Department to drop the charges against Firtash, a request that Barr did not agree to. And Firtash's lawyers in Vienna obtained an affidavit from Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor who argued for Joe Biden's ouster in 2016, as part of his legal fight against extradition in Austria. . In his affidavit, Mr. Shokin made new accusations about the former vice president. Giuliani then touted these claims as major revelations.
A Justice Department spokesperson on Wednesday denied Mr. Parnas' claims about Mr. Barr. Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Toensing and diGenova, did not directly address Parnas' explanation in a statement Thursday. “Victoria Tensing and Joseph diGenova, representing his case in U.S. District Court in Chicago, and the Department of Justice detailing false and misleading evidence submitted to the Austrian court by attorneys from the Department of Justice. “I was hired by Mr. Firtash to present the facts to the leadership,” Mr. Corallo said. He said.
WhatsApp messages also show Sargent praising Parnas' efforts to oust Yovanovitch. On March 23, Parnas texted the sergeant: “She's gone.” The sergeant replied, “Great!!!” Yovanovitch was not actually fired at that time. But on April 23, Parnas, after being tipped off by Giuliani, told the sergeant that “a bomb will be dropped tomorrow.” Yovanovitch said in House testimony that he was informed of his dismissal on April 24.
In June, Parnas texted the sergeant: “Let's meet in Ukraine next Wednesday or Thursday.” The sergeant seemed interested. He said, “I might leave on Thursday and get there on Friday.''
Sargent spokesman Patrick Dorton said the billionaire did not travel to Ukraine at the time and has not been to the country in more than a decade. Dorton said he doesn't know why the sergeant told Parnas he might accept the trip.
