3-4 minutes
A federal judge has ruled that Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of
President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, can give
Congress phone data and documents related to the impeachment
investigation.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken granted the application Friday from
Parnas' attorney Joseph Bondy, which sought permission to give lawmakers
the data and documents that federal prosecutors seized after his
October arrest.
The House intelligence committee issued a subpoena for the materials in its impeachment inquiry, Bondy said.
Bondy said he expects the data to include documents from Parnas' Florida
home and a complete readout of his iPhone, though he has not disclosed
specifically what the relevant information will be.
"Review of these materials is essential to the Committee's ability to
corroborate the strength of Mr. Parnas' potential [impeachment]
testimony," Bondy wrote to the court last week.
Giuliani is not named in the indictment charging Parnas and Igor Fruman, another associate of the former New York City mayor.
Prosecutors said Giuliani recruited Parnas and Fruman to help Trump dig
up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine, who polls show as
a potential leading opponent against him in the 2020 election.
The two foreign-born, Florida-based political donors, Parnas and Fruman,
were charged with violating campaign finance law and arrested in
October. Prosecutors allege they made donations to U.S. politicians on
behalf of foreign interests and filtered foreign money through a bogus
energy company they purported to operate.
Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty.
Bondy said he plans to review the information to determine whether to
provide all of it or just some of it to the House. He noted prosecutors
did not object to sharing it with the House as long as the judge
approved.
The House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump last month,
but House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has
insisted the investigation would continue to support the House case in
the Senate trial to come to determine if Trump should be removed from
office.
During the impeachment inquiry, State Department and White House
witnesses identified Parnas and Fruman as Giuliani's allies in the
effort to also smear Marie Yovanovitch, who was serving as U.S.
ambassador to Ukraine since they viewed her as an impediment in the
attempt to get Ukraine to investigate Trump's opponents.
The House's impeachment report also showed Parnas was in touch with
ranking Republican member of the House intelligence committee Rep. Devin
Nunes, R-Calif., in April, the month before Yovanovitch was removed as
ambassador.
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