On Friday morning, ABC News reported that Ukraine affair figure Lev Parnas revealed he'd secretly recorded President Trump at a 2018 dinner insisting that U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch be “out tomorrow.”
Hours later, a source within the Trump defense team told Newsmax that what is increasingly dubbed the “Parnas Tape” will not even be brought up when the president’s lawyers begin his defense Saturday in Trump's Senate impeachment trial.
“[The Parnas Tape] has no impact on the case,” the source said. “It is not considered to be relevant" to the defense.
The same source said that at the Saturday Senate session — which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said would last only a few hours — the defense would “offer a broad overview” of the president’s case and “a preview of coming attractions.”
On Monday, the Trump team will offer what the source called “a robust defense” based on the White House’s unchanging argument that “the president did not do anything wrong.”
As for filing a motion to dismiss the two counts against the president, the source said “we’re not going to get into that right now. But in an ordinary court, it would be clear [the charges are] insufficient to rise to the level of an indictment.”
“But [the impeachment trial] is slightly different,” the source said, hinting that the defense won't move for dismissal.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2020 Newsmax. All rights reserved.