WASHINGTON _ Rep. Devin Nunes on Wednesday publicly acknowledged for the first time that he spoke with Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani who allegedly helped carry out President Donald Trump's campaign to pressure the Ukrainian government for investigations that would benefit Trump's reelection.
Nunes, R-Calif., was first connected to Parnas six weeks ago, when a House investigation published phone records showing that Nunes spoke with Parnas and with Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney. Nunes initially said he did not recall the conversation with Parnas.
This week, Nunes said in an interview on Fox News that he remembered the call.
"It was very odd, random, talked about random things. I said great, just talk to my staff, boom boom boom, which is normal, standard operating procedure."
Nunes' acknowledgment of the interaction coincided with Parnas' appearance on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show. Parnas said he didn't have much of a relationship with Nunes, although Parnas said he met with Nunes "several times" at a Trump hotel.
"He knows who I am," Parnas said of Nunes.
Parnas said he worked with a Nunes aide who was "looking into this Ukraine stuff also and wanted to help out. ... He had a lot of information already."
Nunes' office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, was a vigorous Trump defender at the House impeachment hearings.
The hearings centered on diplomats' testimony that the White House withheld security assistance from Ukraine as Trump pressed Ukraine's president to announce an investigation into business dealings carried out by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
"I was in shock when I was watching the hearings ... I text my attorney and said I can't believe this is happening," Parnas said. "Because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden." The aide, Parnas said, had interviews with Ukrainian sources he helped arrange.
Parnas was indicted by federal prosecutors in October and charged with campaign finance violations. Prosecutors also allege that Parnas lobbied a congressman to remove the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
Parnas turned documents over to the House Intelligence Committee this week that detail his role in pushing for Yovanovitch's ouster. The government of Ukraine on Thursday announced that it opened an investigation into alleged surveillance of the former ambassador.
As the Senate prepared to begin Trump's impeachment trial Thursday, Parnas sparked a new furor, telling Maddow that "President Trump knew exactly what was going on" with all the Ukraine intrigue.
"He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president. I have no intent, I have no reason to speak to any of these officials," Parnas said.
In the Fox interview, aired Wednesday night, Nunes raised questions about Parnas' credibility.
"This is someone who's been indicted for major felonies. It's very odd that the Democrats have been playing cat and mouse with this guy. There's some talk that he's after an immunity deal, trying to get the Democrats to seek immunity," Nunes said.
Last month, a Democratic report summarizing evidence gathered during the House impeachment inquiry detailed phone records showing Nunes spoke with Giuliani and Parnas in early April.
That was around the time when a series of opinion articles by conservative journalist John Solomon raised questions about Yovanovitch and ultimately led to her dismissal.
The phone records showed Nunes had at least three calls with Giuliani and two with Parnas. Giuliani also called a member of Nunes' staff, Derek Harvey, on May 8, and a former Nunes staffer, Kashyap "Kash" Patel, who now works on the National Security Council.
Wednesday, Fox News host Martha McCallum noted that Nunes could not recall in a previous interview speaking with Parnas.
The question "was brand-new when that had come out when I was on your show. I just didn't know the name, this name Parnas," Nunes said.
"What I always like to remind people is we are dealing with people every day," he said. "We're an oversight committee. So we have incoming calls that come to my office, to my cellphone etcetera, etcetera, and then you know now that he had called my cellphone and I didn't know his name," Nunes said.
