The House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday in the GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden that will feature Hunter Biden’s former business partners Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis and former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.
Parnas, a Ukrainian-American businessman who worked closely with former Trump attorney Giuliani in 2018 and 2019 to try to find damaging information on Joe Biden, began his opening statement by slamming former President Donald Trump and his associates for pushing what Parnas said were false claims against the Biden family.
“The American people have been lied to, by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and various co-horts of individuals in government and media positions,” Parnas said in his opening statement. “They created falsehoods to serve their own interests knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation.”
Parnas maintained that there was no evidence of Biden family corruption involving Ukraine and that the baseless accusations against the president came from the Russian government.
“The only information ever pushed on the Bidens and Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents,” he said, adding that impeachment proceedings against Biden were “predicated on false information spread by the Kremlin.”
In his written statement to Congress, Parnas also called out Trump allies such as former Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., as well as some prominent right-wing media figures for spreading misinformation about the Bidens.
“Every person integral to this shadow diplomacy knew that the Biden corruption rumors were baseless,” Parnas said. “Then-Congressman Devin Nunes, Senator Ron Johnson, and many other individuals understood that they were pushing a false narrative. The same goes for John Solomon, Sean Hannity, and media personnel, particularly at Fox News, who used that narrative to manipulate the public ahead of the 2020 election. They are still doing this today, as we approach the 2024 election.”
Parnas previously urged the House Republican-led Oversight Committee to end its probe into the Biden family, saying in a letter to chairman James Comer, R-Ky., last year that there was no evidence to implicate the president or his son Hunter Biden.
“With all due respect, Chairman Comer, the narrative you are seeking for this investigation has been proven false many times over, by a wide array of respected sources,” Parnas wrote. “There is simply no merit to investigating this matter any further.”
Parnas, who had cooperated in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry into his dealings with Ukraine, was convicted of fraud and campaign finance crimes in 2021. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution for the charges.
Hunter Biden and his former business associate Devon Archer declined to appear in the Oversight Committee’s public hearing Wednesday.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, decried the scheduled hearing as a “carnival side show” and said his client would only appear if the committee also “scheduled a legitimate hearing” that included “relatives of former President Trump,” including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
In a copy of a letter to House Oversight that was obtained by NBC News, Archer’s attorney, Matthew Schwartz, contended his client did not have enough time to prepare for hearing.