A federal judge ordered Friday that Lev Parnas, a Ukraine-born associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, could provide documents and iPhone data to the House Intelligence Committee as it continues its impeachment inquiry.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken filed a two-sentence order allowing Parnas to cooperate with the House panel while he is under indictment for campaign-finance violations.
Parnas worked with Giuliani as the president’s lawyer sought the ouster of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, but the criminal charges are unrelated to those efforts.
The Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine led to his impeachment on Dec. 18. The House accuses Trump of abuse of power for urging an investigation of his political rival, and of obstruction of Congress for defying subpoenas seeking information during the investigation.
Joseph Bondy, a lawyer for Parnas, asked the judge Monday to allow Parnas to provide documents from his home and data from his iPhone 11, which were seized when he was arrested in October.
The Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to Parnas the day after he was arrested. The documents and iPhone data fall under its request for information “to corroborate the strength of Mr. Parnas’s potential testimony,” Bondy wrote.
“At present, we do not know whether we intend to produce the entirety of the materials, or a subset filtered for either privilege or relevancy,” Bondy said in his letter to the court. “If a subset, we will inform the Court and Government as to what we have actually have produced.”
A spokesman for the Intelligence Committee declined to comment on the court order.
Parnas was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, giving false statements and destruction or falsification of records. He and three others charged in the case have pleaded not guilty.
Federal authorities accuse Parnas of conspiring “to circumvent the federal laws against foreign influence by engaging in a scheme to funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and state office so that the defendants could buy potential influence with candidates, campaigns and the candidates’ governments.”
Parnas, who contributed heavily to Republicans and has been photographed with Trump, has offered to provide more information to Congress.
Giuliani has said he worked for the removal of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Several top government officials and former officials testified during House impeachment hearings that her removal opened the door for Trump to urge that country to investigate his rival.
During a July 25 phone call, Trump urged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the family of 2020 presidential contender and former Vice President Joe Biden. That call is central to the article of impeachment accusing Trump of abuse of power.
The other article of impeachment accuses the president of obstruction of Congress for directing aides and agencies to defy subpoenas from Congress as lawmakers investigated.
Trump has argued that he was authorized to set foreign policy and justified in calling for an investigation of the Bidens.
