He says he would like to cooperate with the impeachment investigators. He says he would also like to cooperate with the federal prosecutors who have charged him in the Southern District of new york. But he is right now out on bond awaiting trial. And i will just mention at the outset that i am cognizant of the fact that we are presenting the second part of this interview tonight rather than just diving right into some of the other momentous and historic news of today, including the start today of the senate trial of President Trump. Today marks only the third time in u. S. History that an american president has faced an impeachment trial in the senate and it was a solemn beginning today. The administering the of the oath to the chief justice of the supreme court, the administering to all u. S. Senators, all of the senators individually signing their names to the oath one by one in alphabetical order. Its a solemn thing. Its a sobering thing. This is a big deal. A and it is worth the massive headlines that its getting all over the country. It is absolutely worth marking this day in history. It is also worth noting that the Nonpartisan Government Accountability Office today issued a ruling, that it was illegal for President Trump to withhold aid to ukraine as part of this scheme what he did there was against the law. For that to be arequireing today, that ruling from the Government Accountability office on the day that the Senate Impeachment trial starts. I mean this is all a big deal. But its also becoming clear that what happens next in the impeachment of President Trump in this senate trial may depend, in part, on the additional evidence and witnesses who are still coming forward as the ukraine scheme is coming more fully to light. And so, onward. Heres part 2. All right. One of the main questions, a lot of different people have asked. I, myself, have asked and have wondered, the main question asked about mr. Parnas decision to give this first public interview, is, why he would speak out publicly while hes out on bond awaiting trial . All right, that is atypical behavior to say the least for a federal criminal defendant, particularly one that has a lawyer. The public wisdom is common remarks around remarks to the media could really only disadvantage a defendant in his or her dealings with federal prosecutors. Right . If you speak out publicly, if you speak to the media, it will hurt your criminal case, that is the common wisdom for all defendants in all criminal trials so why is mr. Parnas doing it . Well, in this case, mr. Parnas says that he has a significant fear of the Justice Department. And, specifically, he has significant fear of tomorrow william barr. For him, that is not reason to be quiet. That is a part of the reason why hes making his case now to the public. My understanding from spending a long time with mr. Parnas doing this interview is that he believes hes safer putting this stuff out in the public sphere than he is keeping his mouth shut while the Justice Department know what is he was involved in and they know what he knows and they have his fate in their hands. My only objective is to get the truth out because i never thought i did, was doing anything wrong. I still, you know, i regret certain things that i did because like hurting the ambassador and you know, because that was not something, but it was a part of. Its like when you are in a war, you think casualties stuff like that. Its bad to say, but it was and i keep saying it was like you know being in a cult. And true what they say organized crime. I dont think hes crime, i think hes a cult leader. Thats a scary part. Thats what i mention, people dont understand, there is a lot of republicans that would go against him, the only reason if you take a look, you know very well, you have been following, the difference between why trump is so powerful now, he wasnt as powerful in 16 and 17, he became that powerful when he got william barr. People are scared. Am i scared, yes . Because i think im more scared of our own Justice Department than these criminals right now because, you know, the scariest part is getting locked in some room and being treated as an animal when you did nothing wrong or where you are not and thats the tool theyre using. I mean, just because they try to scare me into not talking, but with gods help and with my lawyer next to me that i know will go to bat for me no matter what, with the truth and im taking a chance. My wife is scared. My kids are nervous. He says theyre trying to scare me into not talking. Mr. Parnas is referencing something specific, actually that i asked him about in more detail in a different part of the interview i will show you in just a moment. But what mr. Parnas describes there as a sort of what he says is a cultish environment, him saying gelitting out of that cultish environment around the president now makes him regret his actions, that thing being like a cult, he regrets his behavior there, that applies as well to the central claim at the heart of the impeachment scandal which was this concerted effort that mr. Parnas was involved in, to accuse former President Joe Biden of wrongdoing and to get you kraen ukraine to announce investigations of Vice President biden. In terms of the allegations against Vice President bind, mr. Shokin makes allegations against joe biden. Mr. Lipchenco makes allegations against mr. Biden. Do you believe those allegation were true . When we were dealing with it, when i was in the middle of the thick of things, i keep saying its like a cultish environment being around President Trump. I have been in d. C. For two years, i never left the trump hotel type of a situation so i truly believed seeing different information that was handed to us at that time that joe biden was doing something illegal, not so much hunter biden but joe biden. But after analyzing all the everyday and sitting back, release whats understanding whats going on, i dont think Vice President biden did anything wrong. I think he was protecting our country and getting rid of probably a crooked attorney general and people used this to their advantage. A lot of rich people in ukraine have their own agenda and they use us here for their own political stuff. So i think this is was a big one. In terms of the material that was handed over to intelligence. On march 22nd, mr. Lipkenco translated to you in russia, there is a translation, it says its just that if you dont make a decision about madam, you are bringing into question all my allegations, including about b. So when he says madam, is he talking about . Ambassador yovanovitch. When he says all my allegations including about b, is that burisma and wide season. Yes. Do you know if its burisma or biden . I guess it could be either . It was always biden. Burisma, nobody cares about burisma, lechevsky, the concern was biden. In effect is he saying listen if you want me to make these Biden Allegations you have to get rid of the ambassador . Absolutely. Was he threatening if he didnt get rid of the ambassador, he would withdraw the allegations . He actually withdrew them. We wanted her ousted with his own career reasons, he crashed with her in her anticorruption efforts . Yes. Lechevsky and they had they dont like each other. They dont like each other. Even though lechevsky used to be his under link, they consider, listen, its a different environment over there and its, unless you live it and unless you do business there and unless you visit there and understand it, bribery and its just a way of life, people at the store bribe the butcher to get a better piece of meat, its normal to get better seats at a concert. Its a way of life over there. The way the structure is set up, the way everybody hopes zelensky changes it, i dont know how he can change with one. Its already embedded. Once you become in america like you become a politician to serve your country, not to make money, because you cant make money, in ukraine, its the opposite. Some of these people pay millions of that, no get a seat as a politician. They can make so much more money . Once they get there. Its all about the money and power. Lev parnas, a key fixer and figure in the effort to fit up vice President Joe Biden with accusations of wrongdoing in ukraine to enforce the government to announce investigations into mr. Body on the force out the u. S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch who was in the waive of that effort. Mr. Parnas now apologizing to that u. S. Ambassador, ambassador yovanovitch. We aired that last night and as i just showed you, mr. Parnas also says he now does not believe that Vice President biden did anything wrong in ukraine and Vice President bidens actions there, which mr. Parnas helped try to turn into a scandal in his word now he says mr. Bidens actions were taken to protect our country and get rid of a crooked attorney general. By confirming the nature of his own communications with that official, he refers to as a crooked attorney general, mr. Parnas also makes clear that the removal of ambassador yovanovitch was a demand from the key accusers that he and mr. Guiliani and the president and others have been using to make this false case against biden. The accusers, including both lipsenco and chokeen wants yovanovitch gone, they insisted the ambassador be removed or his allegations against biden might be at risk. Shokin and lipsenco wanted ambassador yovanovitch removed because they were correct and she was a force against corruption in ukraine, so they wanted her out of their way, too. Think about the Collateral Damage caused not only in her country and around the world and in ukraine in this scheme to aid the effort. That gives you a clear sense of what that might be in ukraine when it comes to anticorruption. President trumps alleged personal role in trying to remove ambassador yovanovitch before she was ultimately recalled. We will have more coming up on this hour as we want. Before we get to that there is one other piece of this i want to foreground here. That isnt specifically about President Trump. Its about another Senior Member of the Trump Administration who lev parnas says stepped in to play a role in the ukraine scheme at a very key moment. The new president of ukraine, elected on this anticorruption platform, right, engaged in an ongoing war with russia. Hes inaugurated in may. As the new leader of ukraine, he somewhat desperately needs a show of support, a strong show of support from the United States government thats key to the u. S. , to the ukraine in terms of its fight with russia among other things. On the eve of zelenskys inauguration, mr. Parnas told me in a personal interview we played yesterday, that he was directed by Rudy Guiliani, who had spoken to President Trump about it, he was directed to really turn up the pressure in ukraine to demand to the Ukrainian Government unless they announce the biden investigation, the Ukrainian Government would lose not all military aid, they would lose all u. S. Aid and Vice President pence would not come to the inauguration of the new president. Vice president pences plans to attend at that point were in full swing. The threat was that would be cancelled that pence wouldnt come unless they met the biden investigation demand. We played this portion last night. Heres a little bit to refresh your memory. In the conversation i told him that if he doesnt the announcement was the key at that time because of the inauguration that pence would not show up, nobody would show up to his inauguration. Unless he announced an investigation into joe biden, no u. S. Officials, particularly Vice President mike pence would not come. Particularly Vice President mike pence. So that conversation as mr. Parnas describes it, he says that was in may of last year, may 12th specifically, a meeting he says with a top aid to the incoming president if you crane, mr. Zelenskys top adviser. He says the that demand, they needed to announce the biden investigation was rebuffed. The ukrainians did not agree to announce a biden investigation, despite the threat mr. Parnas was making there on behalf of the white house. When they rebuffed his demand and they did not provide that investigation, in fact, the following day, the white house made good on their threat and Vice President mike pence did can sell his planned trip to the zelensky inauguration. Thats as far as we got in the interview with mr. Parnas as of last night. But the way it went down thereafter, is that after Vice President pence cancelled his trip to the zelensky inauguration, within a few days, the u. S. Government decided they would send another senior official in his place. So, lets pick up the story there. And thats when we flew to paris and in paris we met rudy for and when we were in paris with rudy, basically, thats when i found out that perry was going, that they decided to send perry there. Secretary perry. You learned that from mr. Guiliani . Correct. Was perry aware of what you and mr. Guiliani were doing if you crane to get these announcements . I dont know about me, definitely he knew about rudy because he was told, he called rudy on his way there to ask him what to discuss and rudy told him that to make sure to give him the message. Mr. Guiliani told secretary perry what you need to convey to the Ukrainian Government is they need to announce an investigation into joe biden . Absolutely. Do you know if part of the message that mr. Guiliani conveyed to secretary perry was also that ukraine would lose their military aid if they didnt announce those investigations . I dont recall them having a specific conversation about that. It was more of just telling him what he needs to do to announce it. I dont know whethat other conversation they could have had prior or after. But i know there was another conversation that perry called after the inauguration telling him that he spoke to zelensky and zelensky is going to do it. Perry says i spoke with zelensky and i got him to agree. Yeah. I got him to agree announce the investigation. They did an announcement. They didnt do that every time somebody would meet zelensky, they would like agree and they would walk it back. So they announced something about corruption. That hes going to get corruption but guiliani blew his lid on that saying thats not what we discussed. It wasnt supposed to be corruption announcement. It has to be about joe biden and hunter biden and burisma. He said the name biden had to be spoken . Always. Always. They did not want them to discuss anticorruption efforts. That was not it. It had to be about biden. They had to say biden. Lev parnas alleging that former Energy Secretary rick perry, who we know from impeachment testimony was tasked by the white house along with kurt volker and Gordon Sondland taking the lead, this wasnt three amigos, according to lev parnas, secretary of Energy Rick Perry was directed by Rudy Guiliani to deliver the message to the Ukrainian Government that they needed to announce investigations into joe biden. He says, mr. Parnas says that mr. Perry phoned mr. Guiliani, contacted mr. Guiliani and said he had been in touch with the ukrainian president. That he had conditiveyed the message and, in fact, the Ukrainian Government had agreed to make that announcement. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry denied playing any role in this scheme. But he did crash out of the cabinet just as the scandal surfaced. It was october 16th when the wall street journal reported that, in fact, secretary perry did call Rudy Guiliani to talk about ukraine. He did so at the direction of President Trump. The following day, october 17th, rick perry tendered his resignation to the president as Energy Secretary. The day after that october 18th, secretary perry announced that he would not comply with a subpoena in the impeachment investigation. Whether he would comply now with a subpoena to testify to the senate trial of the president , that remains to be seen. Well be right back with more. I know that there was another conversation that perry called after the inauguration telling him that he spoke to zelensky and zelensky is going to do it. O it its an honor to tell you that Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. And now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun we needed somebody to lean on all we need is someone to lean on thouwhich is Breast Cancer metastthat has spreadcer, to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. Ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr her2 metastatic Breast Cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. Ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half o