LISTEN: ABC News Releases Audio from Reported Trump Dinner Talking Yovanovitch With Parnas, Fruman
ABC News tonight has released some of the audio from the much-talked-about conversation today in which President Donald Trump ripped Marie Yovanovitch to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.
To recap, ABC News reported earlier that Trump was talking about firing Yovanovitch, saying, “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”
The audio shared by ABC News tonight shows Parnas apparently saying they need to get Yovanovitch out of her position, saying, “She’s basically walking around telling everybody, ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached, just wait.'” And then Trump apparently responded with those above remarks.
The recording was reportedly from April 2018 and, per ABC, made by Fruman.
Separately, the New York Times reported that Parnas had turned over that recording to congressional Democrats:
The associate, Lev Parnas, who worked with Mr. Giuliani to oust the ambassador and to pressure the Ukrainian government to pursue investigations to help Mr. Trump, located the recording on Friday after its existence was first reported by ABC News, said Joseph A. Bondy, Mr. Parnas’s lawyer.
Mr. Bondy said the recording was “of high materiality to the impeachment inquiry” of Mr. Trump and that he had provided it to the House Intelligence Committee, whose chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff, is leading the impeachment managers in their presentation of the case.
You can listen to the audio above, via ABC News.