Giuliani’s Ukraine scandal associate taunts Trump family with bizarre “music video”
You have to hand it to Joseph Bondy, the attorney for Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani who is now trying to cooperate with the Democrats seeking Trump’s removal from office in order to seek leniency in the charges of campaign finance law violations lodged against him.
Bondy has been trying to get Congress to call his client as a witness in Trump’s impeachment trial and has managed to get permission from the judge overseeing Parnas’ case to allow him to deliver the copious amount of data gleaned from his client’s three mobile phones to the House Intelligence Committee to convince them of Parnas’ value as a direct witness in the Ukraine shakedown schemes concocted by Trump’s cabal of cronies, presumably in exchange for favorable consideration in his client’s case.
Bondy went on Twitter yesterday to announce that the judge had approved an expansion of the materials he could deliver to the committee, using the hashtags #LetLevSpeak and #LevRemembers to hammer home his contention that Parnas has a potentially valuable story to tell if allowed to testify.
The dutiful attorney has gone far beyond that simple press release in the ensuing hours, however, launching a teasing social media campaign that includes photos from Parnas’ phones that feature smiling portraits of Republican Trump administration luminaries embracing his client.
Even more cleverly, he edited the shots together into a pair of music videos that he has been judiciously releasing on Twitter in a staged schedule for maximum impact.
His first post from the newly available materials was a photo of Parnas warmly embracing Trump-supporting Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA) in response to a tweet Scalise posted accusing the Democrats of staging an “impeachment charade” as a political weapon.
#WhoDat, @SteveScalise? https://t.co/Xh29RT4fSO pic.twitter.com/MpIyVaXxrD
— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 14, 2020
It was Bondy’s subsequent post of a montage of photos featuring Lev Parnas and a cast of Trump administration figures cut to MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” that really caught the public’s attention, however.
Labeled with an admonition to “call the witnesses,” the video features shots of Parnas sitting with a gavel at the desk of former House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX); giving a thumbs-up signal as he poses with President Trump in the White House; embracing Trump mouthpiece Rudy Giuliani at a black-tie affair; a shot of a dais where name cards for both Trump and Parnas are placed side by side; and, finally, a photo of Parnas wearing a baseball jersey emblazoned with Sessions name.
Call the witnesses. @realDonaldTrump @RudyGiuliani @senatemajldr @SenSchumer #LetLevSpeak #LevRemembers pic.twitter.com/T3ZBMuCkYF
— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 14, 2020
The connection to former Representative Sessions who was ousted from Congress in the 2018 “Blue Wave” midterm elections is significant because Sessions wrote a letter as House Rules Committee chairman calling for the removal of the then-Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch after a meeting with Parnas and his partner Igor Fruman. Sessions has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury investigating Parnas and Fruman’s work with Giuliani.
The reaction to this first video montage was so overwhelming that Bondy released a follow-up this morning — adding the caption “hear the sworn testimony” to his previous “call the witnesses” plea — with a score featuring the old Sister Sledge hit “We Are Family,” an appropriate choice for the montage of photos featuring his client partying with Trump and various members of his immediate family.
Call the witnesses. Hear the sworn testimony. @realDonaldTrump @RudyGiuliani @senatemajldr @SenSchumer #LetLevSpeak #LevRemembers pic.twitter.com/rcD2lAQhkS
— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 14, 2020
After viewing the photos that Bondy has provided to the public, you can see why he was so angry that Trump declared:
“I don’t know them. I don’t know about them. I don’t know what they do … Maybe they were clients of Rudy. You’d have to ask Rudy.”
The Judas-like denial by Trump so angered the Giuliani accomplice that he immediately decided to offer to cooperate in the impeachment investigations against the president, an offer yet to be accepted by the Democrats, and turning Parnas from an insider in Trump circles into a potentially dangerous adversary.
With the publication of these photos demonstrating the interactions between Parnas and the president and his family, Trump’s denials become even more unbelievable and Parnas’ value as a potential witness has increased.
It seems like Lev Parnas is getting his money’s worth from his media-savvy attorney.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
