Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi transmitted her two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial after a prolonged hold.
The stalling was in hopes of gaining some leverage over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had already stated the obvious: The coming trial would be both swift and vindicating for the President.
Pelosi failed, however, and took quite a bit of flak for her decision at that.
Now that the articles have been submitted, there is little more that the House Democrats can do to prevent the inevitable exoneration of the President. In their desperation, they are now resorting to publicly releasing new evidence in the case that may or may not ever make it to trial, in hopes of skewing the public opinion.
House impeachment investigators released a new set of evidence that was obtained from Lev Parnas, an indicted former associate of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani — including voicemails, photos, and text messages between Parnas and high-level figures within Trump’s orbit.
The material includes voicemail messages Parnas received from Giuliani and Victoria Toensing, a prominent Trump-aligned lawyer, both of whom have been identified as players in an effort to force the removal of the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, during the spring.
“Hey Lev. VT here. We’ve got a request to talk to the big one,” Toensing said in the April 23, 2019, voicemail message. “So I just wanted to get the latest from you, if I could. I know it’s late there. I’m sorry.”
Parnas has been singing like a bird ever since being nabbed several weeks ago as he was planning to board a plane to Ukraine with a one-way ticket.
His role in the UkraineGate scandal could be a significant one, as several witnesses have already named Parnas’ pal Rudy Giuliani as a key figure in the controversy.
