If you remember Lev Parnas, you know that back in Trump’s heyday, he went from a minor grifter to one of Trump’s closet confidantes in no time at all.

He got so close to Trump that his actions actually contributed a LOT to the reason that Trump got impeached the first time. That impeachment was about Trump soliciting foreign help from Ukraine in order to aid his re-election chances, and then telling subordinates to ignore subpoenas when he was investigated for it.

Guess where Lev Parnas was born.

Parnas is an American citizen, but was born in Ukraine, and although he’s turned on Trump now (and become a pretty vocal critic), he was instrumental in Trump’s actions back when the former president was trying to “dig up dirt” on Joe Biden.

In fact, when it was all uncovered, Trump ordered his OWN Justice Department to investigate Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman, and they were subsequently jailed for nearly two years.

Now there’s a new documentary out called From Russia With Lev, and it’s pretty much exactly what you think it is from that title.

The whole thing is interesting, but there’s one part in particular that stands out. In it, Parnas visits Trump during a donor event. Parnas and Fruman are invited to the dinner, and Fruman secretly records the entire conversation.

The audio had been out for some time, first uncovered by ABC News. But in the documentary, you can see the shaky cell phone video of it happening in real time, erasing all doubt about the veracity of the recording.

Including documentary commentary [in bold type below] from Parnas speaking into a camera as the film goes back and forth between the footage to Parnas’ face, it sounds like this:

PARNAS: When Trump saw us, he greeted us like he always greeted us by saying “my guys” to me and Igor. Igor secretly recorded the whole thing. All of a sudden, topic changes to Ukraine. Me being me, I got into the conversation.

TRUMP: How’s Ukraine doing? Don’t ask me.

PARNAS: They love you, though.

PARNAS: I realize that Trump has no idea about Ukraine.

TRUMP: How long does Ukraine last in a fight with Russia?

PARNAS: Not very long without us. Not very long.

PARNAS: He has no idea they have oil!

TRUMP: He has oil?

PARNAS: A lot people — number one in Europe. Yeah.

TRUMP: Ukraine?

PARNAS: Yes.

PARNAS: So prior to us coming to the event, I heard all these stories about what was going on with the Ukrainian ambassador and how she was, you know, a Soros plant and how she was part of the Clinton regime. The first thing that came out of my mouth is I said…

PARNAS: the biggest problem there I think we got to get rid of the ambassador. She’s still left over from the Clinton administration.

TRUMP: The ambassador … where, Ukraine?

PARNAS: I’m repeating gossip. I have no idea. I have no facts, no vetting.

PARNAS: She’s basically walking around telling everybody, “wait, he’s going to get impeached.”

PARNAS: He got angry all of a sudden, turned around to one of his aides and said…

TRUMP: Get rid of her. If you’re around him, take her out.

PARNAS: Okay. It was silence. The table looked each other. Nobody knew what to do. Do it. So we all start clapping.

(Applause)

This is literally a tape, a video, of the President of the United States speaking out loud in front of a bunch of political donors, telling his people to “get rid of” Marie Yovanovitch. the US Ambassador to Ukraine. All because his friend Lev Parnas repeated a bunch of gossip that he admits was completely unfounded.

Remember, this is a documentary feature that includes testimony — not gossip — from a man who already served 20 months in prison for campaign finance, wire fraud, and false statement offenses. He has literally nothing to lose by coming forward with this.

Something that feels very vindicating to me about all of this is that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been maligned by both sides of the aisle for hyperfocusing on Trump’s involvement with Russia during the run-up to the 2016 election and after, and his attempt to extort information from Ukraine.

She’s been called everything in the book, nothing shy of crazy, for her obsessive coverage of the issue.

Guess who the executive producer of this documentary proving her right is. Rachel’s been saying it for years, and now you have it straight from the horse’s mouth. Inside information directly from the man who was at the center of Trump’s first impeachment.

It’s not like we didn’t know that Trump would get rid of people because he didn’t want them looking into his affairs. He practically bragged to Lester Holt on live television about firing James Comey for looking into his Russian connections.

But this is the first time we’ve seen video evidence of it happening.

Watch:

“From Russia With Lev” is a must-watch. That final scene w/ Parnas & Hunter Biden, especially—damn.

But this sequence, which includes a recording of Trump ordering his underlings to “get rid of” Marie Yovanovitch seconds after Parnas talks shit about her, is just bananaland shit pic.twitter.com/S5yBOfvk1Q

— Bill Taylor (@BillTaylorMA) September 22, 2024