According to reports, California Republican Devin Nunes met with lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas to discuss digging up dirt on Democratic front-runner Joe Biden. The reports heavily implicate Nunes in the Ukraine scandal at the heart of the House Democrats’ impeachment probe into President Donald Trump.
Nunes’ alleged meetings with Ukrainian officials have opened him to criminal liability, according to a legal expert. In an interview with CNN broadcast on Saturday, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig weighed in on Nunes’ alleged involvement in the case, reports Raw Story .
“Really bad news for Devin Nunes,” Honig said, explaining that the congressman’s alleged actions do not directly affect the president, but could nevertheless change the dynamics of House Democrats’ impeachment investigation.
Honig blasted the lawmaker for “the sheer hypocrisy that he has shown up on his high horse over the last couple weeks, preaching what’s right and wrong and conspiracy theories,” noting that he is, according to Giuliani’s associate, “trying to do the exact same thing that’s on trial here.”
“Devin Nunes, according to this report, was meeting with a corrupt prosecutor, somebody everything who knows this area says was corrupt,” Honig noted.
Nunes’ alleged meetings with Ukrainian officials, according to the former federal prosecutor, could be a federal crime.
“It’s a arguably a crime, a federal crime for a person to try to solicit something of value to a political campaign from a foreign national,” he said.
The congressman claims to have done nothing wrong and denies the reports. He has, in fact, said he will sue the publications that first reported about his alleged contacts with the Ukrainians, calling their stories “demonstrably false and scandalous,” and vowing to punish them to the “fullest extent of the law.”
Nunes, who is the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has — like virtually all Republicans in Congress — fiercely defend Trump against Democratic accusations. He has repeated the president’s claims that impeachment is a soft “coup” organized by Democrats, and lead by Rep. Adam Schiff.
A key phase of the impeachment process wrapped up this week but there’s plenty more to come. Here’s what to expect (bonus: see how @JohnBerman does on a pop quiz). Today @NewDay @CNN : https://t.co/seoWkj5DQs
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) November 22, 2019
The California congressman has also made accusations against Schiff , the top ranking on the committee, claiming that the Democrat — or a member of his staff — held meetings with the anonymous intelligence community official who blew the whistle on the president’s allegedly inappropriate contacts with the Ukrainian government.
A slew of Trump allies is implicated in the Ukraine scandal , reports suggest, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. According to newly released documents, Pompeo coordinated with Giuliani to pressure the Ukrainians and worked on ousting former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
