Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida threw shade on the credibility of a Democratic witness Wednesday as the House Oversight Committee held a hearing as part of its impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.
Witness Lev Parnas had been a witness for the Democrats during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment and was later convicted of fraud and campaign finance crime in 2021, according to NBC. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison and had to pay $2.3 million in restitution.
During his testimony Wednesday, Parnas sought to portray evidence against the Biden family as Russian disinformation, according to Newsweek.
To defend the Biden Crime Family, Democrats brought in convicted felon Lev Parnas who just said that the claims that the Bidens corruptly made money in Ukraine came from “Russian agents” pic.twitter.com/7x6e5L9yRh
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 20, 2024
“The American people have been lied to by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and various cohorts of individuals in government and media positions,” Parnas said in his opening statement. “They created falsehoods to serve their own interests knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation.
“The only information ever pushed on the Bidens and Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents,” he said.
WATCH: Gaetz SLAMS Lev Parnas for lying about President Trump 👇
“The truth for you is taking money from Russians to buy marijuana businesses, then going to jail, and coming in here to lie about Trump!” pic.twitter.com/1v7xCyApfb
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 20, 2024
Gaetz noted that Parnas should know all about working for Russia.
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“It sounds like [out of] everyone here today, the only one working for a Russian oligarch was you,” Gaetz said.
“You were really worried about our democracy, and you were here to warn us, but you were working for a Russian oligarch, wanted to get marijuana licenses, but then you didn’t even do it,” Gaetz said. “The fraud you committed against the Russian oligarch was that instead, you spent the money on yourself.”
“No. That’s a lie, Congressman Gaetz,” Parnas said.
“But instead of spending 50 years in prison, you got four months,” Gaetz said.
“You don’t want to hear the truth,” Parnas said. “You can’t handle the truth, Matt Gaetz.”
“Look, the truth, for you, is taking money from Russians to buy marijuana businesses and then going to jail and then coming here to lie about Trump,” Gaetz said.
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Elsewhere in his testimony, Parnas claimed a number of legislators, including Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, were doing Russia’s bidding, according to The Hill.
A Johnson representative called the allegation “completely baseless” and a “despicable lie.”
“There is nothing in Senators Johnson and Grassley’s reports on Biden family corruption that has ever proven to be untrue. Anyone who ties Senator Johnson’s legitimate and accurate oversight work to Russia is amplifying a despicable lie that Democrats spread in 2020 to discredit the senator’s work and protect Joe Biden.”
