An interesting analysis from reddit user /u/TheTurfinator on why Trump can’t even pretend to not know who Parnas is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/eq12rc/-/femxc1s
Since this comment is getting a lot of attention, I wanted to focus on a particular piece of evidence that proves Trump is full of shit: Jay Sekulow’s Oct. 2, 2019 e-mail to John Dowd. (Read about it here.) That e-mail reads:
>“The president consents to allowing your [Dowd’s] representation of Mr. Parnas and Mr. Furman [sic].”
For those of you who don’t know, Jay Sekulow is another attorney to Trump, and Dowd is a former attorney. The matter they’re discussing here is a concept commonly referred to as a “conflict waiver.” It’s pretty straightforward. Attorneys have a binding obligation to refrain from representing potential clients who have a conflict of interest against current or past clients. In a case where the potential client might have a conflict of interest with another client at some time in the future, it may be possible for the current/past client to waive that conflict and permit the attorney to take on the new client. (This is almost always done in writing.)
So, in Sekulow’s e-mail, Sekulow (Trump’s current attorney) is telling Dowd (his former attorney) that he has obtained a conflict waiver from Trump permitting Dowd’s representation of Parnas specifically. Conflicts can’t be waived in some vague, generic fashion. As attorneys, Sekulow and Dowd would have had to have advised Trump as to (1) Parnas’s identity; and (2) the nature of the conflict.
Point (1) is already proof positive that Trump is full of shit. He and his attorneys knew exactly who Parnas was. This conversation would have never happened otherwise.
Point (2), however, is far more damning. Why? BECAUSE HOW WOULD SEKULOW AND DOWD KNOW THAT PARNAS POSED A CONFLICT WITH TRUMP IF THEY DIDN’T ALSO KNOW THAT THE TWO OF THEM WERE INVOLVED IN THIS PLOT TOGETHER? Parnas and Fruman were indicted for campaign finance violations - specifically for funneling illegal donations to various PACs and republicans, none of whom occupy a particularly significant place in Trump’s orbit. They weren’t indicted for their work in the Ukraine pressure scandal at all. (Not yet anyway.) Based on these charges, how on earth did Sekulow and Dowd come to believe that Parnas posed a risk of conflict with Trump?
Because they knew about the plot, and they knew that this exact situation might unfold. They knew that Parnas - in order to defend himself - might spill on the Ukraine scandal, which would specifically damage Trump’s interests. If Trump weren’t involved with Parnas, why would they even know to seek a waiver from him in the first place?
Trump is in this up to his elbows. There is no other rational explanation.