White House counselor Kellyanne Conway ripped into the media Thursday for giving former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who was indicted in October, a platform to speak.
Parnas spoke with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on “The Rachel Maddow Show” in an exclusive interview Wednesday. He accused President Donald Trump of being aware of Ukraine’s efforts to look into former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I would caution you know, people, again, it’s always if they’re against Donald Trump, they’re credible, they’re legitimate,” Conway told reporters Thursday after the Parnas interview aired. “It doesn’t matter if they’ve been indicted or about to be indicted, we’ll put them on TV, we’ll quote them, we’ll give them accolades, attention.”
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“I would just caution against that because being against Donald Trump doesn’t mean that you are honest or trustworthy or a good person or not under criminal indictment. It should not be the only threshold question,” she continued. (RELATED: Giuliani Associates Who Worked On Biden-Ukraine Probe Have Been Arrested)
Conway added that Parnas is “desperate” because “he’s been indicted” on campaign finance charges. She noted that “he’s facing some serious criminal charges” and appeared to chalk the interview up to Parnas’ legal issues.
The former Giuliani associate was indicted in October on illegal campaign finance charges. Parnas pleaded not guilty despite offering for months to give information to House Democrats to help impeach Trump.
Parnas said in Wednesday’s interview that Trump also knew about efforts to remove Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine at the behest of an unknown Ukrainian official.
The October indictment accuses Parnas and Igor Fruman, an associate, of making illegal campaign contributions to various Republican candidates and committees. It also states that the two worked together to oust Yovanovitch.