Ex-Giuliani associate linked to Trump’s Ukraine scandal taunts Don Jr: ‘You were not allowed in the White House’

Lev Parnas was part of Donald Trump’s attempt to get Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden

A former associate of Rudy Giuliani, who aided Donald Trump’s efforts to try and convince Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden’s family, taunted the former president’s son over Twitter by saying that he was never welcome in his father’s White House.

Lev Parnas, a Soviet-born Florida businessman, quote tweeted a response to Donald Trump Jr, saying: “You were not allowed in the White House, but I would be willing to bet that Ivanka and Jared were there a lot more than 27 times. #LevRemembers.”

Mr Parnas was one of a number of figures heavily embroiled in Mr Giuliani’s efforts to get Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation of Biden during the 2020 presidential race.

He had been responding to a tweet sent by Don Jr, in which he described how he’d visited the White House fewer times during his father’s tenure than a business associate of Hunter Biden’s had during Biden’s reign as vice-president.

“I’d be willing to bet that I didn’t visit the White House 27 times to see my own father,” Don Jr tweeted. “But Joe definitely never met with Hunter’s business partner in more than two dozen visits.”

The story in question that the former president’s son was responding to was one that’s been dragged out for months by GOP candidates who seem hellbent on bringing the current president’s only surviving son before a congressional committee as they prepare for a possible return to power amid rising hopes of winning the House and the Senate in the November elections.

“We now know Hunter Biden’s business partner visited the White House at least 27 times while Joe Biden was Vice President. But don’t worry, President Biden promises he doesn’t know anything about it,” wrote Rep Jim Jordan in the original tweet that Donald Jr Trump was responding to.

The business associate in question that the pair of Trump-allied men were tweeting about this week stems from a news story reported by Fox News, which said that Eric Schwerin, according to White House logs, met with then-vice president Biden’s chief of staff Steve Ricchetti at least eight times in 2016.

Mr Schwerin is a long-time business partner of the president’s son and the recent reporting of his visits to the White House while Biden served as vice president has only served to refocus attention on the already intensely scrutinised business dealings of the youngest Biden.

For his part, the president has maintained that he never spoke to his son about his foreign business and the allegations levelled against the Bidens by Mr Giuliani have largely been dismissed by the legitimate press and most of Congress.

However, that hasn’t stopped some of the most vocal supporters of Mr Trump to continue to lay the groundwork for a probe of Hunter Biden’s affairs to damage his father’s candidacy.

Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported on a private meeting that took place between intelligence officials who had gathered select members of Congress, including House Republican Elise Stefanik of New York, to brief them on future threats to US elections.

The congresswoman, however, reportedly tried to move the 1 April discussion to ask the officials if they had any evidence of Russian involvement in the release of the president’s son’s laptop to the news media in the fall of 2020.

Intelligence officials reportedly told Ms Stefanik the question would be better answered by law enforcement, but it reflects a larger effort by the GOP to keep the conversation focused on Hunter, particularly so ahead of the November midterms.