The House Intelligence Committee released a trove of new evidence turned over by former Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas that contradicts the president’s claims about the Ukraine effort that led to his impeachment.
The documents included a letter from Giuliani to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"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."
"In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you," Giuliani wrote to Zelensky in the letter, which was dated May 10, 2019.
The letter contradicts Trump’s claims that the Ukraine pressure was to root out corruption on behalf of the United States and his claim that Giuliani may have gone rogue with his dealings in Ukraine.
Giuliani bragged about illicit scheme a day earlier:
The letter came one day after Giuliani bragged to The New York Times that he planned to go to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden to help Trump’s campaign.
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Giuliani said at the time. “There’s nothing illegal about it. Somebody could say it’s improper. And this isn’t foreign policy — I’m asking them to do an investigation that they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”
More evidence:
The documents released on Wednesday also show that Parnas played a key role in the effort.
One of the documents was a handwritten note written on Ritz-Carlton stationery in which Parnas mused that he needed to "get Zalensky [sic] to Annonce [sic] that the Biden case will Be Investigated."
Text messages also show that he and Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde discussed surveilling former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
