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Fox Attacks Its Ukraine Smear Source Parnas -- After He Blasts Fox

Fox Attacks Its Ukraine Smear Source Parnas -- After He Blasts Fox

Fox News wants its viewers to think that one of Wednesday’s witnesses at the House GOP’s impeachment hearing is untrustworthy.

But the network isn’t concerned about the one who testified from federal prison after a fraud conviction, or the one who admits to having a grievance with Hunter Biden.

No, the guy Fox wants viewers to disbelieve is the witness who told the committee that he played a key role in concocting the anti-Biden Ukrainian disinformation campaign that played out on Fox’s airwaves.

Fox has long known Lev Parnas lacked credibility, thanks to research by its own staff. But now it’s finally useful to the network’s narratives to say so.

Back in 2019, Parnas was part of a Rudy Giuliani-driven campaign to smear Joe Biden and his son Hunter as corrupt because of actions and positions the senior Biden took regarding Ukraine when he was vice president. Giuliani worked with a motley crew of Fox News staples such as conservative writer John Solomon and Republican attorneys Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing to launder Russian-linked disinformation into the right-wing media ecosystem. The goal was to lay the groundwork for attacking then-President Donald Trump’s most likely opponent in the 2020 presidential election.

Parnas, along with fellow Soviet-born con man Igor Fruman, worked closely with Giuliani to feed him an endless supply of lies about Joe Biden and his supposed corruption. This effort ultimately got Trump impeached for attempting to blackmail Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Biden, but it’s nonetheless most familiar now for serving as the incredibly shaky foundation of the right’s current efforts to impeach Biden.

Media Matters extensively documented the key role Fox News played in laundering this smear campaign into the media.

Giuliani’s strategy hinged on the network’s active participation. Working with con men like Parnas and other Trump cronies, he pursued an “investigation” into Ukraine that he claimed showed both Ukrainian collusion with Democrats in 2016 and evidence that Biden acted corruptly in Ukraine to benefit his son. He provided his “report” to allies in Congress to exploit while also feeding the story to conservative columnist John Solomon, who at the time worked at The Hill and dutifully reported out Giuliani’s claims in dozens of columns.

During that same time period, Solomon appeared on Fox News or Fox Business at least 72 times. Fifty-one of those appearances were on Hannity alone, with host Sean Hannity weaving Solomon’s reporting into his ever-evolving conspiracy theories that “deep state” elements were out to get Trump.

Despite what played on the network’s airwaves, behind the scenes Fox News' researchers warned that Parnas and his allies’ information was not reliable. As The Daily Beastreported, “Fox News’ own research team has warned colleagues not to trust some of the network’s top commentators’ claims about Ukraine.”

According to The Daily Beast, the 162-page brief compiled by researchers for what was then known as Fox’s Brain Room “openly” questioned “Fox News contributor John Solomon’s credibility, accusing him of playing an ‘indispensable role’ in a Ukrainian ‘disinformation campaign.’”

The document also specifically called into question Parnas’ credibility, noting: “Reading the timeline in its entirety—not a small task—makes clear the extensive role played by Rudy Giuliani and his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, in spreading disinformation.”

Indeed, when Parnas was arrested for allegedly making illegal campaign donations to Republican candidates and committees, he was at the airport, preparing to leave the country in order to facilitate an interview with disgraced Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin for none other than Sean Hannity.

Shortly after his arrest, Parnas flipped, and he has since repeatedly sought to expose the misinformation campaign he facilitated and the key players behind it. During Trump’s 2019 impeachment trial, Parnas provided evidence about the pressure Trump allies were placing on Ukrainian officials to provide information about Biden.

With Parnas’ change in position, Fox suddenly became much more publicly skeptical of the claims he was making. And yesterday, when he testified in the latest of the House Republicans’ doomed efforts to invent a reason to impeach Joe Biden, he specifically called out Fox’s tendency to run with the dubious, unverifiable claims he had given to John Solomon:

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): At what point did the campaign to dig up dirt on Biden become a campaign to spread disinformation and lies about Biden?
LEV PARNAS: At some point when we hit a few brick walls, all of a sudden, then I saw the shift between the BLT group, which included John Solomon, the media personality, and Rudy Giuliani and other Trump lawyers, to start trying to push narratives that were — we had no, they were not validated. We had no way to validate them. Basically, a letter would come over from somebody in Ukraine, I'd hand it over to John Solomon. Next thing you knew he was on Fox TV two hours later with Sean Hannity.

Predictably, Fox has sought to discredit Parnas’ testimony by attacking his credibility.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade complained that Parnas “went to jail for lying and is talking about Ukraine” (Parnas was convicted of wire fraud and campaign finance violations, not anything related to his work with Giuliani) and said his testimony was nothing but a “head fake” on the part of the Democrats who invited him to testify.

So-called “straight news” anchor John Roberts said of Parnas: “The credibility of a witness clearly depends on which side of the political aisle you sit, because the Democrats were happy to have Lev Parnas testify there in person. He’s been in jail for wire fraud, among other things, but Jason Galanis, who’s currently in jail, oh, he had no credibility. So, I mean, pick and choose your villains here, right?”

It's convenient how Fox suddenly develops journalistic standards when the claims Parnas is making no longer fit the network’s anti-Biden narratives.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

Lev Parnas Said He Assisted Barr’s ‘Investigation’ Of Russia Probe

Lev Parnas Said He Assisted Barr’s ‘Investigation’ Of Russia Probe

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.

In a July interview with the Ukrainian publication New-Times, Lev Parnas, a close associate of the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, disclosed that his efforts to help Giuliani launch a disinformation campaign targeting former Vice President Joe Biden were also intended to help Attorney General Bill Barr with his investigation into the origins of the U.S. intelligence community’s investigation into Russian electoral interference in the 2016 election.

Over the years, conservative media figures — led by Fox host Sean Hannity — as well as Trump and his Republican allies, have alleged a vast, nonsensical conspiracy theory that the federal investigation into Russian electoral interference was actually an elaborate, criminal scheme to prevent Trump’s election. In May, shortly after assuming his position, Barr appointed U.S. Attorney in Connecticut John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. Since then, Barr has reportedly taken an active role in traveling with Durham around the globe to investigate claims that are central elements of the right-wing’s conspiracy theory. Trump, too, has been pressuring foreign governments to cooperate with the probe. The probe is now reported to have evolved into a criminal inquiry, though it is unclear what potential crimes are being investigated.

In the July New-Times interview, Parnas spoke of his and Igor Fruman’s activities to support Giuliani’s investigation, such as connecting Giuliani with several corrupt, disgraced Ukrainian prosecutors. In addition to detailing their efforts to dig up dirt on Biden, Parnas also discussed his hope that their work would be instrumental in Barr’s investigation into how the Russia probe originated.

According to the article, Parnas “told reporters that his and Fruman’s work would continue. He hopes the information they gathered will be key to the investigation against Prosecutor Mueller, particularly during his investigation into Paul Manafort. ‘Everything will become clear,’ he said.” Additionally, Parnas “expressed the hope that all the information he and Fruman helped expose would become an important part of the Barr case, and would dominate the debate ahead of the 2020 election. ‘Everything will come to the surface —’ he said. — ‘Something terrible has happened, and we will finally know what it is.’” (Note: The News-Time article is in Russian. Translations were obtained via Yantex translations)

Parnas and Fruman are two Soviet-born con men with ties to Ukraine who worked with Giuliani to concoct the disinformation campaign against Biden and to get the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired, reportedly in the hopes of advancing their business interests in the country. The disinformation campaign also involved undermining the intelligence community and bipartisan Congressional findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections to benefit Trump.

The two have since been arrested for campaign finance violations for making allegedly illegal campaign donations to Republican candidates and committees, as well as a pro-Trump super PAC. They also reportedly worked for Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, as well as right-wing, pro-Trump attorneys Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova. This entire group worked closely with conservative writer John Solomon whose columns based on their investigation served as the foundation through which Giuliani and his associates could launch their disinformation campaign in the right-wing media.

Parnas’ attorney now claims that Parnas was also working with Republican congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) to procure information to smear Biden and that Nunes met with disgraced Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in late 2018 as part of these efforts. Nunes is the minority ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee overseeing the impeachment inquiry into Trump.

Indicted Giuliani Associates Were To Set Up Hannity Interview In Vienna

Indicted Giuliani Associates Were To Set Up Hannity Interview In Vienna

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

CNN reported this week that two Soviet-born con men arrested while attempting to flee the country earlier this month claimed they were on their way to Vienna to facilitate an interview between Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Hannity has been at the forefront of promoting the false claim that former Vice President Joe Biden acted corruptly by withholding U.S. aid to force the resignation of a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his son.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested October 10 at Dulles National Airport on conspiracy- and campaign finance-related charges as the two were attempting to leave the country. Parnas and Fruman reportedly worked closely with Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, to dig up dirt in Ukraine against Biden.

It had been previously reported that the two were arrested on their way to Vienna, where they would later be joined by Giuliani, but questions remained as to the purpose of their trip. According to CNN, “they told others they were headed to Vienna to help with a planned interview the next day: Shokin, they said, was scheduled to do an interview from the Austrian capital with Sean Hannity.” A spokesperson for Hannity would neither confirm nor deny that he had intentions of interviewing Shokin prior to Parnas and Fruman being arrested, according to CNN.

This development shines a new light on Hannity’s role in aiding and abetting a disinformation campaign led by Giuliani that sought to advance a conspiracy theory about the 2016 election and to launch a smear campaign against Biden, a Democratic front-runner to challenge Trump in the 2020 election. Parnas and Fruman allegedly worked with Giuliani, as well as right-wing attorneys and frequent Fox guests Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova, to concoct the disinformation campaign and get the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine fired. Giuliani reportedly planned an intricate media strategy, which included feeding the disinformation to conservative writer John Solomon who would then appear on Fox to discuss his “reporting.” Giuliani and Hannity discussed this strategy in January, and Solomon became a staple on Hannity’s prime-time programming.

From March 20 — when Solomon published his first story on the Ukraine conspiracy theory — through October 2, Solomon appeared on Fox News or Fox Business at least 72 times. Fifty-one of those appearances were on Hannity.

On October 5, Fox News announced that Solomon had joined the network as a contributor.