John Dowd, an attorney for President Donald Trump, visited indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas in jail and asked him to cooperate and sacrifice himself for the president, Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday.
In part two of his interview with Maddow, Parnas recounted his interaction with Dowd. He said during Daw’s visit he expected to discuss making bail, but Dowd instead allegedly told him to be “Be a good boy” and suggested he sacrifice himself to save the president.
“I called Dowd to come there. And I started seeing in the process of the bail stuff, the way things were going on… I didn’t feel they were trying to get me out,” Parnas said. “John Dowd instead of comforting me and trying to calm me down and telling me I’m going to be ok, he started talking to me like a drill sergeant.”
After the exchange, Parnas said he snapped at Dowd and warned him to get out, or something “bad” would happen.
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Pressed by Maddow if they were asking him “to sacrifice [himself] to protect Trump,” Parnas replied, “yes.”
He added: “They tried to keep me quiet.”
The new allegation comes after Parnas turned over a trove of documents, records and messages as evidence for House investigators, which have since been handed to the Senate as the impeachment trial begins.
In Part 2 of the Maddow interview, Parnas claims that John Dowd –after Trump green-lit him to represent Parnas — told him to be a "good boy" after he was arrested.
Maddow: Were they telling you to sacrifice yourself to protect Trump?
Parnas: Yes…they tried to keep me quiet pic.twitter.com/TRptI1jiLq
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 17, 2020
Trump and other top administration officials have continued to insist they do not know Parnas despite several photos and videos showing them with Parnas.
Democrats have suggested Parnas could be called as a witness in the impeachment trial. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday that he had not ruled the option out.
