His interview with Maddow seems almost too good (too horrible?) to be true. He implicated Trump, Perry, Barr, Giuliani, Pompeo, Nunes, and probably a couple of others I’m not recalling off the top of my head.
What happens if the Democrats run with it and Parnas is discredited? Does that get Donnie Two Scoops re-elected?
Sounds like the Manchurian Candidate or some other convoluted plot, but given our history the last few years and Putin’s deep ability to conspire, I fear something like that could happen.
Parnas was loyal to Trump for years and suddenly turns coat? I’m not 100% sold.
Too paranoid? I hope so.
So far the Nunes connection has been verified. And, of course, there are lots of photos of Parnas with the Trump gang.
At this point at least Parnas should no longer have to worry about being the victim of Putin’s hit squad since his assassination would verify what he’s been saying.
I hope this isn’t a hijack, but the more people get implicated, the less confident I feel that justice will be served. If all of those people really are in on it, and incentivized to cover it up, then they probably have the numbers and the power to succeed at it. And while it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the Senate would vote to convict Trump (while not likely), it is unfathomable that they would do so under conditions that would elevate Pelosi to the office.
But to directly answer the question, no, probably not. Think of how vast a conspiracy something like this would have to be, involving so many people of such low character. There is no way that this could be orchestrated such that there isn’t some loose end like Parnas hanging out there.
Didn’t see the interview with Lev and Maddow. But what the hell is the point? Trump himself released a transcript of his attempt to extort the leader of an allied country. On top of the obvious extortion, it was done for his own personal gain.
While I wasn’t hanging on every word in the interview, I don’t recall hearing anything in the way of a bombshell revelation (with the possible exception of Jay Sekulow’s involvement). He provided a fair amount of detail, but nothing really new.
I think it’s more likely he’s a scared, mid-level goodfella who’s ‘way out of his depth and trying to get on the prosecutors’ “nice” list (though as a couple of talking heads have pointed out, spilling his guts on television is an odd way to accomplish that). Also, as he said, there’s less incentive to silence him now — though if I were him I’d check my doorknobs very thoroughly.
As Fiveyearlurker says, they DO believe already. They just don’t give a shit, as long as they can maintain power. Republican senators have shown that they have no integrity whatsoever. None.
McConnell has just perjured himself under oath. He has no intention of listening to ANY evidence or considering ANYthing at all that points to Trump’s obvious guilt. He said this clearly weeks ago.
No shits given whatsoever.
I don’t know why Lev Parnas is suddenly singing like a canary, but I think that a) it’s because he’s decided it’s in the best interest of Lev Parnas, not America, and b) everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Trump administration probably has dozens of Lev Parnases working for it. So when we start shaking the trees, apples are going to start falling out.
People like Parnas don’t work for an organization because they believe is some higher principles. They’re there because they see an advantage for themselves. And when things start to go bad, they’re going to see their self-interest now lies in turning on the organization.
I agree - this is nothing that’s in itself new, it’s just more of the same. We’ve known for months now that Trump was taking actions that harmed the security interests of the US, in an attempt to benefit himself personally. The phone call summary made that obvious, all the witnesses we’ve heard from say that the orders came from Trump, but no one has heard Trump himself say that he was behind it. Lev Parnas is just another one.
I admit that Parnas’ extreme flip is rather strange.
I’ve remained skeptical up to now, about him, but he seems to be providing documents that back his statements and that’s basically the gold standard for your average criminal turncoat (given their reliability, otherwise). He also called Hyde a delusional nutball who he didn’t believe 90% of what he said. That also strikes a note of reality, versus talking up the dramatic evilness of everyone else as much as he can. While, granted, not endearing of the man, it does defend Hyde from criminal responsibility.
As to his motives, I have no idea. Some theories that have run through my mind:
FBI plant. Possibly, someone who was out free on a deal to serve as a source for them, who they tasked with going all-in when Giuliani came to him.
He’s sufficiently certain of his own guilt and Trump’s unreliability that he’s decided that he’d rather take a deal from the side of good rather than the side of nutball conspiracy theorists.
He believes that anyone related to the impeachment might be unpardonable, in accordance with that Constitutional limit, so going to the side of good is his only possible deal.
I do not believe that Putin set him up. Trump has given Putin pretty much everything that he could ever want (except the removal of most sanctions). Even if we assume that Trump did that fully of his own will, Trump’s position as head of the USA is 100% to Putin’s benefit.
People higher up the Trump food chain than Parnas are in prison, and Trump has absolutely no history of personal loyalty to anybody who worked for him. The math is pretty simple enough for any mid-level mook.
Yeah, I think it’s 2 and it just seems fast because - unlike Manafort and Cohen - Parnas had the ability to watch things happening to other Trump associates and see how it all ended up. He’d already decided what to do if the men in sunglasses showed up for him.
Of course it should. That’s why corroborating evidence by way of documents and testimony is necessary in any real trial. Do you think we don’t try bank robbers in this country because one participant in the crime flips on the other, but – oh, noes! – he’s a criminal, so we can’t believe anything he says? Use your head.
Dems more than made their case against Trump during the inquiry phase of this process. But Parnas has brought the goods by way of text messages, emails, phone recordings, writings, etc. They dovetail completely (corroborate, IOW) everything Gordon Sondland testified to under oath during the televised impeachment inquiry, that “everyone” in the Trump administration knew what was going on.
So while it’s true that Dems have already made a rock solid case against Trump, Parnas’s evidence demonstrates how broad and deep the conspiracy goes across the entire cabal of thugs currently occupying the Executive Branch and beyond, clear into the Congress: Pence, Pompeo, Perry, Bolton, Mulvaney, Nunes, RNC co-charman Thomas Hicks, former Florida State party co-chair Harry Sargeant, former Texas congressman Pete Sessions, current Florida governor Ron de Santis – and most importantly, William Barr.
We already knew Barr was involved based on Trump’s own released call summary. In it, he tells Zelenskyy that he would like to “have the Attorney General call you,” and then goes on to mention Barr 4 more times in the brief call. Parnas’s information completely supports the assertion that Barr is deeply involved.
In addition to the above, Parnas made 2 points during his Maddow interviews that I thought were particularly striking:
That the only reason Zelenskyy and others in the Ukrainian government met with him, Parnas, is because they were told to do so on the authority of Rudy Giuliani and, by extension, Trump himself; and
That he was offering his information as a firewall. He is more frightened of Barr’s DOJ than he is of anything else. He believes the release of his information provides an insurance policy against other harm that may be visited upon him; say, left alone in a cell unobserved à la Jeffrey Epstein.
Remember too how many times Rudy Giuliani has referred to having an “insurance policy” against Trump throwing him under the bus. I think Parnas feels that someone else may be thrown under the bus in lieu of Giuliani. Himself. He is trying to make sure this doesn’t happen. Barr refuses to initiate an investigation against Giuliani. Only SDNY has done that, and you know, we haven’t heard much about it for awhile. Did Barr stymie SDNY’s Giuliani investigation and point them exclusively at Parnas? I think he did.
As for whether Parnas is a Putin plant…
Hard to imagine Parnas as a groomed operative. Useful idiot, more likely. Parnas is indicted for making illegal foreign campaign contributions. Those contributions are sourced to Russia, flowing via Ukrainian Russian-mob-tied oligarch Dimytri Firtash, already indicted in the US and fighting extradition from Vienna. The funds flowed through Parnas and on to Republican PACs and politicians. Firtash is definitely tied to Putin. Parnas likely knows this. Does that make him a Putin plant? Perhaps, in a broad sense.
Let’s circle back to Barr one more time. Giuliani allegedly promised Firtash he could make the extradition efforts against Firtash “go away” in exchange for the funds given by Firtash to Parnas and Fruman. How could Rudy accomplish this, except with the direct assistance of William Barr?
I don’t think Parnas’s current actions are motivated by Russia’s wishes. I think he is just genuinely scared of what Trump and his henchmen in the DOJ may do to him. We have a mafia-style government now.
Parnas has a long history of fraud accusations and debt due to failed business ventures. He’s about as dirty as they come. He’s desperately trying to get on the other side of this conflict to deflect suspicion away from himself and possibly earn some goodwill from authorities.
It’s not to say he’s lying. But it shows how his motives are not that difficult to understand. He’s like any other guy in a criminal organization turning stool pigeon to save his own skin.