No wonder Lev Parnas just sold out Donald Trump
Earlier this evening, Lev Parnas announced that he’s going to hand over Ukraine scandal documents to the House impeachment inquiry – and to show he means it, he’s replaced his Trump-affiliated lawyer with a new lawyer. So what prompted Parnas to decide it’s time to sell out Trump and Rudy Giuliani?
When the news first broke, Palmer Report pointed out that with federal prosecutors apparently trying to squeeze Igor Fruman into flipping on Lev Parnas, it left Parnas with few choices. We also pointed out that Parnas doesn’t seem like he’s naive enough to think that Donald Trump is going to magically pardon him. Now it turns out Parnas has a more direct reason for not expecting a pardon.
The New York Times just published this quote from Lev Parnas’ new attorney: “Mr. Parnas was very upset by President Trump’s plainly false statement that he did not know him.” Oh come on now, a recently indicted guy like Parnas has far bigger problems here than the prospect of getting his feelings hurt. But Trump’s public disavowal of Parnas is a clear indicator that Parnas is on his own – and that leaves him with no choice but to sell Trump out to the House impeachment inquiry.
It’s instructive that Donald Trump never did pardon the likes of Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen, and they’re all either rotting in prison or headed there. Trump has a consistent pattern of publicly distancing himself from his own henchmen once they’re in so much trouble they’ve become a liability. Now he’s done it to Lev Parnas as well. The difference this time around is he’s in the process of being impeached, and Parnas can deliver perfectly incriminating evidence against Trump that can help Parnas obtain leniency from a post-Trump DOJ.
