• The former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas recently turned on President Donald Trump and provided new details about the campaign in Ukraine to secure dirt on Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden.
  • Trump has repeatedly claimed not to know Parnas, but Parnas’ lawyer has released multiple photos and videos suggesting otherwise.
  • “I welcome him to say that even more,” Parnas told CNN on Thursday. “Every time he says it, I’ll show them another picture.”
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Lev Parnas, the former associate of President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has resolved to release a photo of him with the president every time Trump claims not to know him.

Parnas, a Ukrainian American businessman who was instrumental to efforts to secure dirt on Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden, turned on Giuliani and Trump earlier this week by revealing in a series of explosive interviews new details about the pressure campaign.

Parnas has said he was close friends with Trump, while the president has repeatedly denied knowing him. In a Thursday interview with CNN, Parnas accused Trump of lying and threatened to release photos of them together every time the president repeated those claims.

“I welcome him to say that even more,” Parnas said Thursday. “Every time he says it, I’ll show them another picture.”

#LevRemembers

Shortly after Parnas was arrested in October on charges of funneling foreign money into US elections, Trump claimed not to know him. But Parnas' Facebook profile from May 2018 showed multiple photos of him visiting the White House, including one of Parnas with Trump alone.

"I don't know those gentlemen," Trump told reporters at the time of Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman. "Now it's possible I have a picture with them because I have a picture with everybody, I have a picture with everybody here."

Other Trump officials, including the senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and the ranking House Intelligence Committee member, Rep. Devin Nunes, have also claimed not to have met Parnas.

Parnas' attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, has since tweeted out numerous videos and photos of Parnas with Trump, Conway, and the close Trump family members Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner - accompanied by the hashtags #LetLevSpeak and #LevRemembers.

Parnas' charges

Parnas turned on Trump this week shortly after the House Intelligence Committee released a trove of incriminating evidence detailing his and Giuliani's pressure campaign in Ukraine.

It included a note by Parnas, handwritten on Ritz-Carlton stationary, that said: "Get Zelensky to announce the Biden case will be investigated."

Giuliani and his emissaries, including Parnas, had been trying to strong-arm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into publicly committing to investigating Biden and his son Hunter over unfounded allegations of corruption.

Parnas has since said Trump "knew exactly what was going on" in Ukraine the whole time and implicated multiple senior administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General William Barr, in being involved in the efforts.

Such an investigation, even one that did not find wrongdoing, could have hurt Biden's chances in a matchup against Trump in the 2020 presidential election. A July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky helped prompt a whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment, which reached the Senate for trial on Thursday.

In this image from video, presiding officer Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts swears in members of the Senate for the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

Foto: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts swearing in members of the Senate for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on Thursday.sourceAssociated Press

In his Thursday interview, Parnas also said he had "loved" Trump to such an extent that when FBI agents visited his house, "my wife felt embarrassed because they said I had a shrine to him."

"I had pictures all over," he said, adding: "I idolized him. I thought he was the savior."

He painted a picture of yes-men surrounding Trump in a cult-like devotion, one that Business Insider's Kieran Corcoran said could later come back to haunt the president.