Emptywheel: (Let's be careful) Parnas is telling us what we want to hear, whether true or not.

[kpete]

...........

On key parts of his story, however, he got — with the help of MSNBC’s editors — notably more reserved or deceitful. We didn’t learn the full terms of his relationship with Firtash, even though Firtash is the guy paying for the defense strategy that includes telling us these stories. Parnas describes, “we were tasked” to spin these stories, leaving the subject of the tasking unknown. Parnas dubiously claims he’s sorry about targeting Marie Yovanovitch, even while he shows no remorse at similar shivs in service of the grift. Parnas claims to have been more concerned by the breakdown Robert Hyde had at Mar-a-Lago than he was about Hyde’s claims to have Yovanovitch under surveillance and possible contract.

Parnas is telling us what we want to hear, which we all recognize for the stories he spun for the frothy right resulted in false stories that nevertheless was all it took to work up half the country. We also recognize, though Parnas didn’t lay this out and it’ll take days before people have an adequate understanding of what he promised in Russian, that he made commitments on Rudy’s and Trump’s behalf but without anyway for them to verify what he was promising.

Perhaps he’s doing it to pressure Bill Barr, the one guy who can constrain what SDNY does with his prosecution, and likewise can authorize criminal targets against whom Parnas might be able to cooperate against. Perhaps he believes he’ll get immunity from Adam Schiff, though as a former prosecutor, it’s unlikely Schiff will make that happen. Perhaps Parnas believes Trump will panic and pardon him. Or perhaps all the people that Parnas has been obligating Rudy and Trump to have decided it’s worth their while to expose those obligations.

But until we understand why Parnas is doing what he’s doing — why he inserted himself into the right wing echo chamber in the first place, and why he’s so insistent on telling us what we want to hear now — we would do well to exercise caution about the stories he’s telling.

MORE:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/01/16/lev-parnas-creator-of-echo-chambers/

[NewJeffCT]

1. I generally agree with Marcy

I remain skeptical on Parnas overall, but I think Schiff and his team are smart enough to vet him and his information pretty damn thoroughly. And, Rachel's team is excellent as well.

[Mr. Ected]

2. Is he a double agent?

Seems Putin wouldn't mind if America was subjected to more disruption.

In fact, it may be the test signal Putin has been wanting to send out: will the American people believe the demonstrable evidence of Russian influence on the GOP, or has the brainwashing project been 100% successful and Supreme Leader trumps truth. My guess is that "conservative" American people are acting like lemmings and walking right into Putin's trap.

[Maeve]

3. Don't trust--verify

It's still part of a plan to divide and conquer; we can't always be sure WHOSE plan, tho. Unfortunately, the people who surround tRump are unethical slimeballs who make corkscrews look like knitting needles. Parnas is no different (neither was Cohen). That doesn't mean he won't give useful info and may be key to ending the whole crooked mess.

As I said--verify. Verify everything.

[brush]

4. He said it was for his personal safety.

[kentuck]

5. It's possible he could be working for "someone" else.

We need to keep an open mind.

[Frustratedlady]

6. It appears Rachel had this interview in the works for a couple months

and, knowing Rachel, I would guess she considered the possibility of a trap. After all, her reputation is at stake.

It seemed like a lot of the interview was covered by documentation with other "facts" backed up by Sonderman's testimony. Perhaps he picked up Sonderman's testimony to make it sound true, but my gut says no.

Maybe I want to believe him, but if he was lying, why is everyone with connections to Trump popping up this morning in such a panic to say he's lying? After all, they all lie as a SOP, anyway, so who's going to believe them. I doubt Barr, Pence, Nunes, et al., got much sleep, last night. When you have to go back and remember all your lies, that takes time and then you have to compare those to what Lev said, last night...that stirs up the adrenaline. No sleep/drastic decisions to CYA.

I'm totally enjoying the kerfuffle from these clowns.

[dlk]

7. Verification of Parnas' assertions is next logical step

However, he gave everyone an excellent place to start.

[albacore]

8. Of course we don't have to believe him.

What we DO need is a shit-ton of investigations, witnesses, documents, etc.

All this shit is going to come out anyway... why not have it come out while trump is still in office and the Senate can try him with more of the facts?

[abqtommy]

9. Let's measure the words Parnas speaks against the evidence he provides in documents, photos

and recordings. So far it appears to me that he's been there and done that and is willing to back it up. That's how we verify...

[pecosbob]

10. No criminal comes entirely clean when caught...ever

A person will reveal only what truth they must to achieve the best outcome for themselves. In Parnas' case it is important for him to be seen as a minor wheel in a bigger machine so that he can minimize the penalty for his illegal campaign contribution activities. His best outcome is to make it appear that he was basically running errands for people he barely knew and that the surveillance of the Ambassador was benign. The Ukraine government has now announced that it will open an investigation of the incident. He could have more problems coming down the road.

I'm sure the main thing he does not want to talk about is where his money originated (Firtash and other obvious odious connections).