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Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas had 5 iPhones and 2 iPads with evidence Congress needs for impeachment: report

Lev Parnas, one of the associates of Rudy Giuliani arrested on federal charges, believes he has evidence that Congress needs for the impeachment inquiry, his lawyer told a judge on Monday.

“Just left an SDNY hearing for Lev Parnas the main actor in Giuliani’s Ukraine Squad. Most notable part: Parnas’ lawyer said the gov is in possession of several documents and electronic devices they want to give to Congress for the impeachment investigation,” BuzzFeed’s Ema O’Connor reported Monday.

“The gov has seized *a lot* of Parnas’ devices. The list they gave: 6 devices at the time of arrest, including a Samsung device, iPad, 2 iPhones, cell phone. Then 8 more from his house: 3 more iPhones, Samsung galaxy phone, iMac, and iPad (no phone in court, may have missed 1),” she explained.

The evidence is not just in electronic form, but also includes hard copies of documents.

“Parnas’ lawyer also said there were hard copy documents Parnas wanted to provide to Congress. The gov said they would be happy to scan them and make them available to Congress as well,” O’Connor reported.

Read her full thread from the courtroom:

Ema O'Connor
@o_ema
Just left an SDNY hearing for Lev Parnas the main actor in Giuliani’s Ukraine Squad. Most notable part: Parnas’ lawyer said the gov is in possession of several documents and electronic devices they want to give to Congress for the impeachment investigation.

The gov has seized *a lot* of Parnas' devices. The list they gave: 6 devices at the time of arrest, including a Samsung device, iPad, 2 iPhones, cell phone. Then 8 more from his house: 3 more iPhones, Samsung galaxy phone, iMac, and iPad (no phone in court, may have missed 1)

[correction from previous typoed tweet]: Parnas plans to cooperate with Congress in their investigation. The Gov. in this context is the executive branch of government, DOJ. Gov lawyer told the court that they would happily provide the requested info to Congress. ...

The gov lawyers said that they haven't been able to get into any of the encrypted devices, and that FBI has been working overtime to get into them. Said if Parnas provides them the passwords it will speed up the process and they will be able to get the devices to Congress faster.

It is unclear which of the devices are relevant to Congress' subpoena. Also unclear whether Parnas plans to give the government the passwords, though the Judge encouraged the defense team to discuss this with the US attorneys

Parnas' lawyer also said there were hard copy documents Parnas wanted to provide to Congress. The gov said they would be happy to scan them and make them available to Congress as well.

But Parnas' legal team and the gov weren't totally in harmony. Parnas' lawyers requested that the court let Parnas go outside on his house arrest for two hours a day to "exercise" and "see the sun." The government said they opposed this motion b/c Parnas is a flight risk

Fruman (who is charged alongside Parnas but wasn't present in court today) tried a similar request a couple weeks ago. Didn't go too well for him either. Here is my article from that hearing: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/igor-fruman-giuliani-ukraine-flight-risk-bail …

The government also said that the investigation into Parnas is ongoing, meaning that there could plausibly be additional charges on top of the ones for which Parnas has already been indicted. The next hearing will be on Feb. 3, but the trial likely won't be until summer or fall.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/giuliani-henchman-lev-parnas-had-5-iphones-and-2-ipads-with-evidence-congress-needs-for-impeachment-report/