Giuliani associate prepared to testify Nunes aides scrapped Ukraine trip to avoid alerting Schiff

An associate to President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani is prepared to testify that aides to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) dropped a planned trip to Ukraine to obtain dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden in order to avoid alerting House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

CNBC reported Sunday that Lev Parnas plans to tell committee members that aides to Nunes, the Intelligence Committee’s ranking member, planned to meet with two Ukrainian prosecutors in an effort to obtain evidence to aid Trump’s reelection bid, but abandoned the efforts once they realized that Schiff’s staff would be alerted to the trip.

{mosads}The offices of Nunes and Schiff did not immediately return requests for comment from The Hill on Sunday evening. Parnas’s planned testimony, if accurate, would implicate Nunes’s staff in the president and Giuliani’s efforts to push Ukrainian officials to open politically charged investigations into Biden, a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have argued that the president’s efforts were a clear example of Trump attempting to solicit foreign interference in a U.S. election, while also allegedly tying up military aid to the country over the issue.

Joseph Bondy, Parnas’s attorney, told CNBC that he hopes the committee will allow his client to testify. Parnas and a fellow Giuliani associate were recently arrested at Dulles International Airport and charged with campaign finance violations.

His client, Bondy told CNBC, wishes to provide “truthful and important information that is in furtherance of justice.”

“We have great faith that, in the end, the proper choice will be made as to when and whether to hear Mr. Parnas,” he added.