Devin Nunes now admits to phone call with indicted Giuliani aide

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News host Martha MacCallum Wednesday night that he actually does remember speaking to Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.

In a December interview with Sean Hannity, Nunes downplayed reports that he had been in touch with Parnas, claiming he didn’t “really recall” Parnas’ name and that it was “possible” the two had talked, but “I haven’t gone through my phone records.”

Questions about Nunes’ involvement arose when House impeachment investigators discovered Nunes had been in touch with both Giuliani and Parnas in the spring of 2019, around the same time Giuliani was allegedly plotting to oust U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, from her post.  Phone logs showed that one phone call between Parnas and Nunes lasted nine minutes, according to the Daily Beast.

On Wednesday, Nunes suddenly remembered that he did, in fact, speak with Parnas.

Nunes admitted that Parnas called his cell phone, and the two men talked, although Nunes claimed the call was “odd” and refused to discuss any of the details of the call. “I just didn’t know the name — this name Parnas,” Nunes said Wednesday, referring to his earlier attempt to distance himself from the phone calls.

When MacCallum asked if Nunes and Parnas had discussed the Ukrainian ambassador or the fact that she should be removed, Nunes refused to answer. Instead, he launched into a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton, Fusion GPS, and Ukraine.

For his part, Parnas recently admitted to working with Donald Trump, Giuliani, Nunes, and several others in an attempt to dig up dirt to use against former Vice President Joe Biden.

In a Wednesday interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Parnas claimed he had met with Nunes several times, and that Nunes was “involved in getting all this stuff on Biden.”

Last year, Parnas was arrested and indicted on campaign finance charges.

As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes played a major role in the investigation into Trump administration actions in Ukraine, yet never disclosed his alleged involvement in the very actions the House was investigating.

“I was in shock when I was watching the [impeachment] hearings and when I saw Devin Nunes sitting up there,” Parnas told Maddow. “I texted my attorney. I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening,'” Parnas said, adding he was in shock because Nunes was “sitting there and making all statements and all that when he knew very well that he knew what was going on.”

“He knew what’s happening,” Parnas said. “He knows who I am.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.