Sen. David Perdue blasted the notion that Ukrainian fixer Lev Parnas could serve as a reliable witness in President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
The Georgia Republican appeared on NBC News’s Meet the Press with host Chuck Todd on Sunday to offer insight into how the impeachment trial may look moving forward. Todd pressed Perdue on whether Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, would be asked to testify in the trial.
“This is a distraction,” Perdue said. “This is a person that’s been indicted. Right now, he’s out on bail. He’s been meeting with the House [Intelligence] Committee. If the House felt like this information was pertinent, I would think they would have included him and his testimony” in its impeachment investigation.
Todd suggested that Parnas was a pertinent witness with first-hand information about Trump’s alleged attempt to force Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is the front-runner in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
“He seems to have some material evidence that might be helpful in connecting some dots,” Todd said.
“Well, that’s the deal he’s trying to make to get his sentenced reduced. I’m not sure he does at all, personally,” Perdue replied.
Parnas has been indicted for violating campaign finance laws after allegedly attempting to funnel money from foreign donors into American political campaigns. While out on bail, he sat for an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and claimed a former lawyer for the president encouraged him to “sacrifice” himself for Trump.
The fixer has admitted that he didn’t speak directly with Trump about the pressure campaign in Ukraine but insisted that Trump was aware of everything he was doing while working with Giuliani. He is working with House Democrats and has turned over pages of messages and memos from his work with the president’s personal lawyer.
