Daily Beast: Parnas Was In Much Deeper Than Ukraine

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 23: Lev Parnas (L) and his wife Svetlana Parnas depart federal court following an arraignment hearing on October 23, 2019 in New York City. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, along with Andrey Kukushkin and David Correia, are associates of Rudy Giuliani who have been arrested for allegedly conspiring to circumvent federal campaign finance laws in schemes to funnel foreign money to U.S. candidates running for office at the federal and state levels. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas feels betrayed. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Parnas said:

“I thank God every day that he gave me the courage and the understanding not to play the game and try to protect these people and show them my loyalty, which they didn’t deserve because I didn’t get any loyalty from them,” he said. “They used me for their purposes—used me, abused me, and threw me out with the trash.”

But what’s most interesting in the interview is the diplomacy Parnas says he was involved in, and it had nothing to do with Ukraine. It was foreign policy far from the State Department or White House and it involved discussions with the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. One meeting was held in a VIP room at a restaurant in Donald Trump’s Washington Hotel.

“In April 2018, then-Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) traveled to Caracas and met with the embattled President Nicolás Maduro. Months later, in September, the congressman gathered with pals in a little-known VIP room at the Trump Hotel BLT Prime restaurant for a follow-up call. Parnas said he was there.

“Giuliani and Sessions staffer Caroline Boothe were also present, Parnas said. (A spokesperson for Sessions declined to comment, a lawyer for Boothe did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and Maduro officials did not provide on-record comment). The call with Maduro came over Sessions’ cell phone, and the Congressman put him on speaker for the whole room to hear.

“Rudy didn’t want to be on the call because he felt that it might not be proper because he was the president’s attorney,” Parnas said. Despite any misgivings, Giuliani was present when the call began.“

According to the Daily Beast, Maduro and Sessions had hatched a plan that would have allowed him to step down from power. “The idea would be for Maduro to announce “free and fair elections and step down if he lost.”

Maduro indicated an interest in moving to Texas. “He noted that Maduro telegraphed interest in American sports, and there was some discussion of him potentially moving to Texas and watching the Dallas Cowboys.“