WASHINGTON – Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman who figured prominently in Rudy Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, said Tuesday that a GOP-led House committee should put end of his investigation into the Biden family.
In a 10-page letter obtained by NBC News, Parnas told House Oversight Chairman James Comer that “there is no evidence” that the president or his son Hunter interfered in Ukrainian politics “and there never has been “.
“With all due respect, Chairman Comer, the narrative you are pursuing for this investigation has been proven false many times over, by a wide range of respected sources,” Parnas wrote to the Kentucky Republican. “There’s simply no merit in investigating this. It matters more.”
Parnas offered to testify under oath or provide any information the committee needs and highlighted information that previously came to light during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, alleging that Giuliani and Trump had orchestrated a campaign before the presidential election to “banish the filth of the Bidens”.
When reached for comment Tuesday, a spokesman for Comer said his office had not yet seen the letter, but in a statement the president blasted Democrats and the press, saying they were “ignoring independent facts” about the Biden family , his financial dealings and “. allegations by IRS agents about the Justice Department’s politicization of the Biden investigation.”
“The bank records, the FBI’s Biden bribery record and the IRS whistleblowers have nothing to do with Rudy Giuliani. It’s time for the Democrats and their allies to stop covering for the Bidens and instead , let the facts follow,” Comer said.
Parnas said that between November 2018 and October 2019, he was a “key participant” in meetings or phone calls between Giuliani and various Ukrainian officials, often acting as a translator to pressure them to open an investigation into the Biden family.
“Never, during any of my communications with Ukrainian officials or connections with Burisma, did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the Bidens to illegal activities,” Parnas wrote in his letter.
“In fact,” he added, Ukrainian officials and people connected to Burisma, a Ukrainian company, had repeatedly asked him “why our team was so concerned with this idea.”
Parnas further alleged that Giuliani and some of his associates knew the charges they were pursuing were false.
NBC News has reached out to a Giuliani spokesman for comment.
“There has never been any factual evidence, just conspiracy theories spread by people who knew exactly what they were doing,” Parnas wrote. “Please drop this effort to investigate the Bidens, which is nothing more than a wild goose chase, and let our elected officials get back to the issue of uniting our great country to be stronger and better than never.”
Parnas cooperated with the first impeachment inquiry into former President Donald Trump. He was later convicted of fraud and campaign finance charges and sentenced to 20 months in prison. In his letter, he expressed remorse for his involvement in Giuliani’s efforts.
The Hunter Biden investigation has been underway for months. In June, the president’s son agreed to plead guilty to a pair of federal felonies in Delaware for failing to pay his taxes.
The White House has rejected probes into the Biden family led by House Republicans.
“As we have said many times before, the president had no business with his son,” Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, said in a statement last month. “As we have also said many times before, the Department of Justice makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, and in this case.”
When asked about the timing of the letter, an attorney for Parnas, Joseph Bondy, said his client had come forward out of a sense of duty and noted the panel hearing scheduled for Wednesday is expected to include testimony from two alleged whistleblowers who worked on the Justice Department’s Hunter Biden investigation.
Rebecca Kaplan reported from Washington, and Zoë Richards reported from New York.
Diana Paulsen contributed.
