Trump repeatedly denies knowing key impeachment figure despite being photographed with him

Donald Trump has repeatedly denied knowing a new central figure in the impeachment inquiry, despite extensive photographic and video evidence of the two together.

Lev Parnas claims to have worked to persuade Ukrainian officials to investigate the president’s political rivals at the request of Mr Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, of whom he is a known associate.

After an explosive interview on MSNBC on Wednesday, during which Mr Parnas – a Trump donor – claimed the president “knew exactly what was going on” and “was aware of all my movements”, Mr Trump managed to deny any knowledge of his existence 13 times in two minutes.

“I don’t even know who this man is, other than I guess he attended fundraisers so I take a picture with him,” he said. “I take thousands and thousands of pictures with people all the time. Oftentimes I’ll be taking a picture with somebody and say ‘I wonder what newspaper that’s going to appear in’.”

“I don’t know him at all. Don’t know what he’s about. Don’t know where he comes from. Know nothing about him. I can only tell you this thing is a big hoax ... Perhaps he’s a fine man, perhaps he’s not.”

His vehement denials came after the House Intelligence Committee released a trove of documents on Tuesday, which revealed various photographs taken from Mr Parnas’ phone that showed the Soviet-born businessman with Mr Trump and his close relatives, including his son Donald Jr, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.

Mr Parnas grew up in Brooklyn and has previously said he worked for the Trump Organisation in the 1980s selling real estate, but claims he didn’t properly get to know Donald until the 2016 campaign. At this point, he began to work closely with Mr Giuliani, who allegedly sent him on his Ukrainian mission late in 2018.

After Mr Trump’s denials, Mr Parnas’ lawyer released a video showing the two together in a group of people at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Mr Parnas challenged the president’s denials, saying: “I welcome him to say that even more. Every time he says that I’ll show him another picture. He’s lying.”

Also in the documents released on Tuesday was a note belonging to Mr Parnas, handwritten on a pad from the Vienna’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which reads “get Zalensky [sic] to announce that the Biden case will be investigated”.

One of the impeachment articles against Mr Trump is the charge that he abused his power by withholding military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to force president Volodymyr Zelensky to launch a corruption probe into Hunter Biden, who had served on the board of Ukraine-based energy company, Burisma.

In October, Mr Parnas was indicted for allegedly violating campaign finance laws by making outsize donations to Republican causes after receiving millions of dollars from Russian sources.

He was arrested in Washington as he boarded a flight to Vienna. Mr Giuliani also planned to be in the city at that time, but later denied having any plans to meet with Mr Parnas while there.

Mr Parnas’ lawyer also alleged in November that Vienna was where the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, met with Ukraine’s former top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, to discuss a probe into the Bidens in December 2018.

Mr Nunes denied the allegation to Breitbart News and threatened to sue various publications for linking him to Mr Parnas. But on Wednesday Mr Nunes admitted to having had several calls with Mr Parnas, claiming he received so many calls in his committee role that he had been unable to remember.

Meanwhile, the increasing evidence linking the businessman to Mr Trump could be used in the impeachment trial, which began on Thursday.

Mr Parnas has indicated that he wants to testify in the trial, although it remains to be seen if the Senate will vote to call him as a witness, particularly that he is currently under indictment on charges of conspiracy, making false statements and falsification of records.

Amid his numerous fresh denials about Mr Parnas on Thursday, Mr Trump said: “It doesn’t matter what he says. He’s trying to probably make a deal for himself.”