'The president knew everything': Key Trump impeachment figure unexpectedly arrives at Capitol Hill demanding to testify

Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has shown up unexpectedly on Capitol Hill, where he is demanding to meet with senators to tell his side of the impeachment scandal story.

Mr Parnas was spotted by reporters as he arrived, and asked what he would tell senators if he were able to get an audience with them.

"Call the witnesses," Mr Parnas responded. "The president knew everything."

He continued, claiming that there were "many quid pro quos" beyond the one apparently highlighted in the 25 July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in which the American asked for an investigation by the Ukrainian government into a domestic political rival. That phone call sparked a whistle blower complaint, and later the impeachment investigation that has led now to Mr Trump's trial in the Senate.

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Mr Parnas, who has been indicted last year on charges of alleged campaign finance violations, could attend the Senate impeachment investigation, but that he would not be allowed to take off his GPS ankle monitor to do so. Because of that, it appears as though he would not be permitted to enter the Senate floor due to the chamber's rules.

The surprise visit isn't the first time that Mr Parnas has claimed Mr Trump as intimately aware of the scheme that he and Mr Giuliani engaged in to compel a Ukrainian investigation of Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic nominee. And, in addition to Mr Trump, the businessman has claimed that other top level officials including Mike Pence, William Barr and John Bolton were all in the loop on the effort.

"He lied," Mr Parnas said of Mr Trump, when asked during a recent MSNBC interview about the president's claims that he does not know the businessman or his fellow indicted associate, Igor Fruman. "I mean, we're not friends. ... But he knows exactly who we were. He knows exactly who I was, especially because I interacted with him at a lot of events."

The Capitol Hill visit also comes days after a New York Times report was released detailing claims in an upcoming book by Mr Bolton, who was then the president's national security adviser. In that manuscript, Mr Bolton claims that the president was aware of the efforts to use a White House visit and US military aid to Ukraine as leverage to spark an investigation into the Bidens.

Those claims have led to renewed demands that the Senate impeachment trial call on new witnesses, including Mr Bolton, who has signalled a willingness to testify before the trial should be be subpoenaed.

In response to those manuscript claims, Mr Giuliani himself has responded, telling CBS News in an interview that Mr Bolton "never said to me, 'I've got a problem with what you are doing in Ukraine. Never once, never winked, never sent me a little note. He is a personal friend, I thought. So here's the only conclusion I can come to, and it's a harsh one, and I feel very bad about it: "He's a backstabber."