Once again President Donald Trump denounced Lev Parnas during a press conference on Wednesday. The former associate of Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was described by the president as a “con man” and was “sort of like a groupie” at fundraisers.
The president said of Parnas, “I don’t know him, other than he’s sort of like a groupie. He shows up at fundraisers. I don’t know anything about him.”
“Parnas, I don’t know, other than he probably contributed to the campaign along with tens of thousands of other people,” Trump continued, “This weekend I was taking pictures with hundreds of people. Every once in awhile I’ll look at somebody and I’ll say, ‘Gee, I wonder when that picture is going to be in The New York Times, or The Washington Post or on Fox.’ ”
Parnas is currently facing federal indictment for alleged campaign finance violations.
Trump made the comments during a press conference from Davos, Switzerland, as he attended the annual World Economic Forum. Asked about allegations by Parnas that the president knew of all his and Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, Trump immediately shot back, calling Parnas a “con man.”
Parnas and his associate, Igor Fruman, were arrested and indicted last October for allegedly funneling donations to U.S. political campaigns, including a group supporting Trump’s reelection bid. The two have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
House investigators last week released a trove of records and text messages that Parnas turned over as part of their investigation into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. The documents offered additional details about Trump and Giuliani’s apparent efforts to pressure Ukraine into opening investigations into the president’s political rivals.
Parnas also spoke out about the dealings in highly talked about interviews with MSNBC and CNN that same week.
Giuliani told Fox News that his associate had “misrepresentations” about the effort to push Ukraine in order to announce investigations.
