House Oversight Committee Democrats will bring ex-Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas as their witness during Wednesday’s second public hearing of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Parnas, 52, teamed up with Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and then-President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, to dig up Ukraine-related dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, but has since disavowed the endeavor as a “wild goose chase.”
The Ukraine-born Parnas was later sentenced to 20 months behind bars after being convicted in October 2021 of campaign finance violations and other crimes.
“Lev Parnas can debunk the bogus claims at the heart of the impeachment probe and, in the process, explain how the GOP ended up in this degraded and embarrassing place,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, said in a statement.
Republicans quickly blasted their counterparts for inviting Parnas to the hearing.
“It’s telling the Democrats didn’t call any of Hunter Biden’s business associates who claim his father’s innocence because they know their testimony won’t withstand public scrutiny,” an Oversight Committee spokesperson told The Post.
“Instead, they are relying on a convicted liar who claims Joe Biden never met with a Burisma official when in fact he dined with one.”
Last July, Parnas penned a letter to Republicans on the Oversight Committee ripping into their inquiry.
“Chairman [James] Comer, the narrative you are seeking for this investigation has been proven false many times over, by a wide array of respected sources,” Parnas wrote. “There is simply no merit to investigating this matter any further.”
Former Hunter Biden business associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis will also appear, a spokeswoman for the Oversight panel told The Post on Monday.
Devon Archer, the first son’s ex-partner on several overseas business ventures, will not attend, according to a copy of a letter his attorney sent the committee and which was obtained by The Post.
Hunter Biden also turned down the invite, with his lawyer denigrating it as a “made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.”
Archer’s attorney Matthew Schwartz wrote that a Friday email from Oversight and Judiciary Committee staff was the first he had heard from the panels since Feb. 6, when they requested some documents and said they looked forward to “further cooperation.”
Schwartz added that a March 6 letter requesting Archer’s appearance never reached him — though he remains his client’s only legal counsel — and less than three business days’ notice was not enough time to prepare for testimony.
“Archer is out of the state and not even in this time zone at the moment,” he said. “Providing such short notice for a witness’s public appearance before the Committee on a matter of national importance is patently unreasonable.”
Both Galanis and Archer are facing or serving prison time in connection with a $60 million scheme to defraud a Native American tribe.
Hunter Biden served as vice chairman of Burnham Financial Group, the firm that conspired to sell bogus bonds to the Oglala Sioux tribal entity in South Dakota, but was never charged, according to trial testimony previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for the ploy, ordered to forfeit $15.7 million and pay restitution of $43.4 million. He requested a shortened sentence in February due to his cooperation with the House impeachment investigation and claimed he played a “minor role” in the fraud.
Galanis is serving a 14-year federal prison sentence in Montgomery, Ala., and his request for home confinement for the balance of his term — which had been initially approved — was “reversed” after the Oversight panel subpoenaed Archer last year.
Galanis is scheduled to appear virtually at the hearing.
Comer (R-Ky.), who is spearheading the impeachment probe as well, maintains that he expects Hunter Biden to appear Wednesday or face consequences.
“I think that we’re at the point in the investigation where we need to hear the discrepancies,” Comer told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” this past weekend. “I fully expect Hunter Biden to show up.”
“This is very serious because we’re at the point now of criminal referrals.”
Democrats have roundly condemned the impeachment probe. President Biden has professed his innocence and insisted he did not meddle in his son’s overseas business machinations — a notion which Republicans strenuously dispute.
“The @HouseGOP impeachment saga is over. Let’s waste no more precious time and resources on this long-running flop. The American public want[s to] focus on real problems like prescription drugs and gun violence,” Oversight Committee Democrats wrote on X Tuesday morning.
“Lev Parnas is a convicted felon, who was sentenced to prison for serious crimes, including wire fraud and making false statements,” Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, said in a statement Tuesday.
“Democrats on Capitol Hill are using him to protect the Bidens,” Goodman added. “Mr. Parnas would be wise to keep in mind that the Democrat Party may be willing to use him in order to protect the Bidens, but they’ll just as quickly chew him up and spit him out the moment he is no longer useful.”
