As the House impeachment inquiry into the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine continues, more and more revelations about President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, continue to surface. Now, The New York Times is reporting that a Ukrainian oligarch is confirming that Giuliani's now-indicted former business associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, planned to use their DOJ connections to help dig up dirt on one of Trump's 2020 opponents, Joe Biden.
According to Dmitry Firtash, Parnas and Fruman told him in June that they could help him with bribery and racketeering charges filed against him in the Northern District of Illinois as long as he hired attorneys Joe diGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing to represent him. As NYT points out and Law & Crime reiterates, DiGenova and Toensing, who are die-hard Trump supporters and regular contributors to Fox News, were already enmeshed in Giuliani's scheme to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden at the time of the offer. But according to Giuliani, the NYT's story is fake news.
"The NYT today has so much #FAKENEWS!" Giuliani tweeted this Monday. "1. I did not ask anyone to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and certainly not with Dimitry Firtash, who I have never met or talked to. 2. I never heard of Shokin meeting w/Congressman Nunes."
"How many times can a source lie?" he added before suggesting that me might sue.
Responding to the Times' report, MSNBC legal analyst Mimi Rocah tweeted that the criminal implications are "next level."
But Giuliani's denial is undermined by the CEO of a Ukraine-owned gas and oil company, who told Law & Crime on Sunday that he's willing to testify about Giuliani's dealings in the region.
“I will with a high likelihood be invited to testify in this case,” Andriy Kobolyev said. “If I am called, I would be willing to come and testify.”
