Two of the south Florida businessmen who helped Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani with his pressure campaign against the Ukrainian government don’t intend to voluntarily comply with House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry requests, the Miami Herald reported Monday.
Both Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman don’t plan to respond to the House’s Monday deadline for documents and will not appear for testimony on Thursday and Friday this week, according to the report. The pair’s attorney John Dowd — who previously worked for Trump’s legal team during the Russia probe — confirmed his clients’ intentions to the Herald on Monday.
“No response planned,” Dowd reportedly told the Herald. Democrats said the decision to not cooperate will lead subpoenas, according to the Herald.
Parnas and Fruman are entangled in the House Oversight, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees’ impeachment inquiries because of the work they reportedly did to help connect Giuliani with Ukrainian officials in November 2018. The two also reportedly traveled to Ukraine together in 2019.
Giuliani’s role in Trump’s pressure campaign to get Kyiv to fabricate dirt about the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and former Vice President Joe Biden has come under increased scrutiny as more details of the far-reaching effort come to light.
Last week, Dowd wrote to House Intelligence Committee counsel Nicolas Mitchell to assert attorney-client privilege with regard to House Democrats’ requests for documents.
“Thus, certain information you seek in your September 30, 2019, letter is protected by the attorney-client, attorney work product and other privileges,” Dowd wrote.
