[Pete F.]

They will fit right in with their client

Ken Starr—lost his job as Baylor president amid allegations the university mishandled cases of football players accused of sexual assaults

Alan Dershowitz—accused of having sex w/ an underage girl provided to him by Jeffrey Epstein

Maybe they can have Lev Parnas answer these questions.......

1. List all the individuals who can corroborate your specific claims. What other specific documents and records that have not been released to the public would corroborate your claims?

2. Exactly when and how did you first meet Rudy Giuliani?

3. Exactly when and how did this idea of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe and/or Hunter Biden first arise, to your knowledge?

Background: The New York Times has referred to Parnas’s “first trip to Ukraine in February 2019,” but it’s unclear whether that was his first time in Ukraine on this mission or just his first time there that year. Parnas was born in Ukraine, though he has long lived in the United States and is a U.S. citizen.

4. Was Rudy Giuliani involved in other work in Ukraine that you had any connection with or knowledge of, other than this mission to persuade the Ukrainian government to announce investigations of Biden?

5. Can you speak to whether Trump thought that the efforts with the Ukraine authorities could benefit your or Giuliani’s or others’ business dealings?

6. Similarly, do you know whether Trump thought that the efforts with Ukraine could benefit Giuliani, Joe Toensing, or Joseph diGenova in their being hired by the former and incumbent Ukraine officials (per the NYT and Post’s reporting a few months ago), and what stage those contracts with the Ukrainians reached.

Background for Questions 5 & 6: If Trump knew an effect would be to direct business toward Giuliani or Parnas, it may trigger liability for the President under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). See Susan Simpson’s important analysis of Giuliani and Parnas’s activities in relation to the Ukraine effort and the FCPA.

7. You have talked almost exclusively about your and your associates’ roles in relation to the effort to persuade the Ukrainian government to announce investigations into Joe and/or Hunter Biden. What discussions did you have with anyone about Giuliani’s and Trump’s belief that the Ukrainian government tried to interfere in the 2016 election in opposition to Trump and in favor of Hillary Clinton?

8. Who all was part of the “team” that you have mentioned that was involved in carrying out this mission? Name all the members and their roles.

9. You have been described at times by pro-Trump Washington lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova, as well as Giuliani or others as a “translator,” but your role extended at least to that of a fixer, right? How would you describe your role in this effort?

10. Where exactly did you travel in the course of this mission, and who paid for the travel in each instance? Who paid for Giuliani’s travel and other expenses?

11. The WhatsApp messages that the House committees released on Jan. 14 show that Rudy Giuliani messaged you on July 3, 2019, asking, “Where are you guys?” And you responded, “Going to Vienna.” And he replied, “Wow!” Who were “you guys,” and why did Giuliani respond with that kind of excitement?

Background: This was around the time that Kremlin-linked Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, a fugitive fighting U.S. extradition who is living in Vienna, hired Toensing and diGenova in the scheme to get dirt on the Bidens. Firtash later says he had paid the couple $1.2 million as of November 2019, including a referral fee for Parnas.

12. What is your understanding of the arrangement between Giuliani, Toensing, DiGenovo? Was the arrangement deliberately structured so that the team would have the “cover” of attorney-client privilege to not disclose their foreign clients and their being directed by the Trump legal team?

Background: Before taking the February 2019 trip to Ukraine, Parnas met with Giuliani in Manhattan to discuss details. Parnas told Giuliani that he and Fruman were concerned about not having diplomatic credentials for their mission, according to the Times:

Mr. Parnas said he proposed that the president designate them “special envoys” to ensure their safety and access. Then, Mr. Parnas said, Mr. Giuliani walked away to call Mr. Trump, and returned with a new plan: He would represent Mr. Parnas and Mr. Fruman, as well as the president, a move that might afford their shared mission the confidentiality of attorney-client privilege. Mr. Giuliani has denied Mr. Parnas’s account.

13. Why was Toensing, as indicated in several of the texts you provided to the House committees, so desperate for Yovanovitch to be removed? Did Toensing’s retention of Ukrainian or other clients require Yovanovitch’s removal? Which clients? Why?

14. What was/is Toensing-DiGenovo’s connection to Trump’s legal team?

15. You have said you were lobbying Trump in April 2018 to have Marie Yovanovitch removed as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. That was almost a year before your efforts with Giuliani to have the Ukrainian government announce a Biden investigation. Why, and on whose behalf, were you seeking Yovanovitch’s removal in the spring of 2018?

Background: Parnas told Maddow that he personally told Trump at a dinner at the Trump hotel on April 30, 2018, that Yovanovitch was badmouthing him and saying he was going to get impeached, and Trump responded by turning to an aide and saying “fire her.” Also, the federal indictment of Parnas alleges that he was lobbying a member of Congress as early as April 2018 to have Yovanovitch removed at the behest of one or more Ukrainian officials, at least one of which apparently was then-Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.