Washington — House Democrats released a trove of documents from an indicted businessman who helped Rudy Giuliani in his campaign to pressure Ukraine, including previously undisclosed handwritten notes and a letter Giuliani addressed to the Ukrainian president-elect requesting a meeting shortly before his inauguration.
Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, was indicted on campaign finance charges along with another associate in October at the height of the House impeachment inquiry. He soon offered to cooperate with congressional investigators and recently received permission from a judge to hand over his records to the House Intelligence Committee.
Chairman Adam Schiff sent the material to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on two flash drives, writing in a letter that the Intelligence Committee "continues to receive and review potentially relevant evidence" in its investigation into President Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
The new documents come to light as the Senate prepares to open Mr. Trump's impeachment trial, and could bolster Democrats' arguments for admit new evidence and hearing from additional witnesses.
The three committees that led the initial phases of the probe released select material from what they called a "voluminous record of data" gleaned primarily from Parnas' cell phones.
In the letter, Giuliani introduced himself as Mr. Trump's personal attorney.
"I am private counsel to President Donald J. Trump. Just to be precise, I represent him as a private citizen, not as President of the United States," Giuliani wrote. "This is quite common under American law because the duties and privileges of a President and a private citizen are not the same. Separate representation is usual process."
In their summary of the documents, the committees said Parnas "texted a copy of the letter to a close aide to then-President-elect Zelensky shortly after it was drafted."
Giuliani ended up canceling his trip to Ukraine after significant public blowback, and he harshly criticized Zelensky's team in the aftermath.
Parnas, however, continued to push to set up a meeting between Zelensky and Giuliani. On July 7, he texted Giuliani to say he was traveling to Vienna and "trying to get us mr Z."