White House pushes back on Parnas allegations

The White House on Thursday dismissed allegations from Lev Parnas that President Trump was aware of a scheme to get Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rivals as a media blitz from the indicted businessman threatened to shake-up impeachment proceedings.

Parnas, a Soviet-born businessman and former associate of the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, turned over evidence to House investigators that detailed the pressure campaign against Ukraine and alleged in an interview late Wednesday that Trump was fully aware of the efforts.

In response, press secretary Stephanie Grisham attacked Parnas' credibility, accused him of seeking attention on anti-Trump media outlets and pointed to Trump's denials that he knows the businessman despite the two appearing in photos together.

"This is a man who’s under indictment and who’s actually out on bail," Grisham said Thursday morning on Fox News. "This is a man who owns a company called Fraud Inc., so I think that’s something that people should be thinking about. We’re not too concerned about it."

"It’s unfortunate that he’s now making a media tour with a lot of the outlets that are, you know, against the president," she added. "I think that shows exactly what he’s doing."

The trove of documents and text messages provided by Parnas offers additional, corroborating details over issues at the heart of Trump’s impeachment, including efforts to remove U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and create conditions to push for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden to benefit Trump’s reelection prospects.