Nunes dodges question over alleged meeting
WASHINGTON — For the past two weeks of historic public impeachment hearings against President Trump, Rep. Devin Nunes has played the role of high-profile inquisitor.
Now, Nunes, R-Calif., finds himself cast differently, entangled in the same chain of events the committee has been probing — whether Trump and his allies sought to turn rumors and intrigue in Ukraine into a source of political attacks against Democrats in the U.S., especially former Vice President Joe Biden.
Late Friday, CNN reported that Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, was prepared to tell Congress that Nunes had met late last year in Vienna with Viktor Shokin, formerly the top Ukrainian prosecutor, to obtain information about the Bidens. The network cited one of Parnas’ lawyers as the source of the allegation.
On Sunday, in a Fox News interview, Nunes declined to directly answer a question about that allegation, but threatened to sue CNN for reporting it.
“Bottom line, were you in Vienna with Shokin?” asked Fox interviewer Maria Bartiromo.
“I really want to answer all these questions,” Nunes replied. But the congressman said he was unable to do so “because there is criminal activity here; we’re working with different law enforcement agencies.”
“I think you can understand that I can’t compete by trying to debate this out with the public media when 90 percent of the media are totally corrupt,” he said.
“Everyone’s going to know the truth; everyone’s going to know all the facts,” Nunes said. “I will win in court.”
The Nunes-Shokin allegation is a new twist in the impeachment saga, which has so far failed to breach an unyielding wall of support for Trump by GOP lawmakers.
Democrats seized on the allegation to portray Nunes as part of the effort to enlist Ukrainians to do political dirty work for Trump.
“Look, I don’t know what happened on that trip, but the allegation is that Devin Nunes used federal funds to fly himself and a couple of staffers over there in the search of dirt on Biden,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a member of the Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“That’s actually what the president is accused of doing — misusing public dollars for a political purpose.”
Throughout the two weeks of public hearings, Nunes, who along with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was allowed to give opening and closing statements as the testimony proceeded, poured scorn on the process, calling the hearings “bizarre,” a “kangaroo court” and a “circus.”
If Parnas testifies about other aspects of the inquiry, he should address any role he played in brokering contacts between Shokin and Trump allies, Himes said.
Shokin is a key figure in the Ukrainian scandal. The former prosecutor was forced out in March 2016 as part of an anti-corruption drive by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Biden joined in the international effort to push Shokin out.
