‘You should have recused yourself’: Lawyer for Lev Parnas explains why Nunes’ participation in House impeachment hearings is a huge conflict of interest

During the House Intelligence Committee’s recent impeachment hearings, Rep. Devin Nunes of California was among President Donald Trump’s most vociferous and combative defenders. The Intelligence Committee’s lengthy, comprehensive impeachment report, released on Tuesday, shows that Nunes was hardly an impartial observer — and the famous criminal defense attorney Joseph A. Bondy, who is representing indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, asserted the GOP congressman had no business participating in the hearings.

Information in the House Intelligence report vividly illustrates why Nunes should have recused himself from the House Intelligence hearings: a series of conversations with Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who was recently arrested for alleged campaign finance violations. In other words, Nunes’ participation was — according to Bondy — a huge conflict of interest.

Journalist Natasha Betrand has posted, on Twitter, a partial timeline of those Nunes/Parnas conversations: the two of them, AT&T records show, spoke several times on April 12, 2019. Bertrand, posting the information, tweeted, “More calls between Devin Nunes and Lev Parnas, including one that lasted 8 minutes on April 12.”