January 15, 2020

New Documents Appear to Link Ukrainian Oligarch With Trump’s Push for Biden Probe

Democrats released explosive new material on Trump’s Ukraine scandal.

Rudy Giuliani, and Lev Parnas on December 5, 2018Alex Edelman / AFP via Getty Images

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

The same set of notes, a few pages later, mention “Joe/Victoria” and “Lenny Davis” on either side of a T-chart. “Get rid of Lenny Davis (nicely),” Parnas wrote. Last July, Firtash replaced Lanny Davis, a criminal defense lawyer and crisis manager who was representing him, with Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, a husband-wife legal team with close ties to the Trump White House and Giuliani.

Parnas’ scribblings indicate that Davis’ replacement may have been engineered by Parnas and Giuliani as part of a broader effort to advance Trump’s political interests in Ukraine. And it supports a claim by Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, that Toensing and diGenova, through Parnas, suggested to Firtash that they could leverage their ties to Trump and Giuliani to help resolve the oligarch’s “extradition problems” if Firtash hired them and helped them find dirt on the Bidens. Firtash told the New York Times that he hired Toensing and diGenova to obtain a meeting with Attorney General William Barr. They achieved that in August, though they have not succeeded in getting the extradition effort dropped.

Davis on Tuesday told Mother Jones that while representing Firtash, “I drew a red line over anything approaching politics.” He added that he is “sad for Mr. Firtash about this situation.”

Take the next step: Help us fight for the truth.

Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices.

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

Take the next step: Help us fight for the truth.

Investigative journalism, like the story you just read, takes time to do. Months of research. Weeks of writing, editing, and fact checking—and putting together the photography, art, video, and audio that tell the stories in a new way, illuminating new perspectives and voices

We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

So, we’re asking: Will you support independent journalism that demands those in power answer for their actions?

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

INDEPENDENT. BECAUSE OF YOU.

Mother Jones has no billionaires calling the shots—just readers like you making fearless reporting possible

Donate