Parnas went on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show Wednesday night, claiming the president “knew exactly what was going on.” He said that the president and Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, asked him to urge Ukrainian officials to publicly open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, his reelection rival.
“He was aware of all of my movements,” Parnas told Maddow. “I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president.”
Trump said Thursday that he doesn’t know Parnas at all, and dismissed the existence of photos of him and Parnas together, saying he takes pictures with “thousands of people including today that I didn’t meet.”
He accused Parnas, who was indicted in October over an alleged campaign finance scheme, of trying to “make a deal for himself.”
“I don’t know who this man is,” Trump said. “Oftentimes I’ll be taking a picture with somebody and say, I wonder what newspaper that one will appear in. I don’t know him. Perhaps he’s a fine man. Perhaps he’s not. I know nothing about him.”
Trump has made an effort to distance himself from Parnas in the past. In October, after Parnas and his Florida-based partner, Igor Fruman, were indicted, the president denied knowing either of Giuliani’s associates.
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