On January 16, 2019, Kan Nawaday was quoted in the New York Law Journal regarding the likelihood of Lev Parnas, the ex-Rudy Giuliani associate now charged with federal campaign finance violations, cooperating with the Southern District of New York and striking a deal with prosecutors.
According the article, Parnas, whose work in Ukraine landed him at the center of the presidential impeachment inquiry, was "trying very hard" to be a congressional witness at Trump's Senate impeachment trial, in an effort, partly, to mitigate any sentence he might receive in federal court.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have refused Parnas's earlier proffers related to charges that he had funneled foreign money into U.S. elections, and Parnas is now prepared to take his story public in the hope that it could help his criminal case.
The Southern District is known for its hard-line policy, which requires would-be cooperators to admit to all crimes they may have committed, even those the government does not know about. The demanding nature of the process is designed to allow prosecutors to fully assess the credibility of potential cooperators and to screen any complications that could jeopardize a case at trial.
"I think Lev Parnas cannot cooperate in the way SDNY prosecutors need him to, which is to come to Jesus about everything," Nawaday.