Has Anyone Seen Ghouliani Sober?

[GreyhoundFan]

This WaPo opinion piece wins my award for best title: "Giuliani’s long quest to put himself in legal jeopardy appears to have paid off"

Quote

For years, a question has been on the lips of many political watchers: What’s up with Rudolph W. Giuliani? The man who, as New York mayor, built a bipartisan reputation as “America’s mayor” had suddenly refashioned himself as a hatchet man for President Donald Trump and a spokesman for some of Trump’s worst conspiratorial impulses. Whatever one thought of Giuliani’s methods or of all being fair in political war, he surely sacrificed his legacy in the process. The big remaining question was how much he might have sacrificed even more than that, given the potential legal jeopardy involved in some of his pursuits.

On Wednesday, we got a sense of how much trouble he might indeed have landed himself in. The Washington Post confirmed federal investigators had executed a search warrant at Giuliani’s home (the news was first reported by the New York Times). It’s the biggest indication to date of the seriousness of a long-known investigation of Giuliani’s lobbying, particularly vis-a-vis Ukraine.

But Ukraine is hardly the only issue on which Giuliani has flown close to the sun in recent years — and now faces the legal problems that come with it. In some ways, he seemed to have been begging for such scrutiny.

The Ukraine effort is certainly first and foremost, and it carries huge political significance given that it is the issue over which Trump was impeached for the first time in late 2019. Essentially, investigators are looking into whether Giuliani’s efforts went beyond digging up political dirt in that country for his boss, and whether he might have also engaged in unauthorized lobbying on behalf of those with whom he suddenly found himself allied. Giuliani was particularly involved in efforts to discredit then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, whom his Ukrainian allies wanted to push out and who was eventually ousted with Giuliani’s input. Last summer, a top aide to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Giuliani’s contacts on the matter “deeply disturbing.”

It’s a federal crime to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests without disclosing the details of such work, and the federal government has in recent years stepped up its efforts to crack down on such practices.

Even Giuliani’s presence in Ukraine itself was legally problematic. The United States had just been through a 2016 election in which Russia had illegally interfered by hacking emails and disseminating misinformation. And here was Trump’s own lawyer traveling to a foreign country to solicit information and investigations aimed at damaging an electoral opponent. Giuliani even admitted publicly that he aimed to “meddle” in Ukraine’s affairs involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

But Ukraine isn’t even the only country in which Giuliani’s lobbying has been at issue. We learned late last year, thanks to a scoop from The Washington Post’s Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Anthony Faiola and Josh Dawsey, that Giuliani had also engaged in suspect practices with regard to Venezuela. He was effectively pushing for a negotiated exit for embattled President Nicolás Maduro. This ran counter to the official U.S. foreign policy position, which was to take a hard line against Maduro. Four months later, Giuliani gained a client in a wealthy Venezuelan energy executive who had been under investigation in Florida.

And then there’s the matter of Giuliani’s post-election advocacy for Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. These have also landed Giuliani in legitimate legal jeopardy — this time in civil court. Giuliani alleged falsely that voting machines threw the election and lodged various conspiracy theories, earning lawsuits from voting-machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic. Giuliani may have more insulation than others who are being sued, based on his role as Trump’s lawyer, but he also went further than most in his claims.

Pompeo’s aide was hardly the first to see these kinds of problems coming. As The Post’s article on Giuliani’s pursuits in Venezuela demonstrated, administration officials often worried about exactly what the president’s lawyer was up to and how it might ensnare them. Fiona Hill, a Trump administration expert on Russia, testified during the impeachment hearings that then-national security adviser John Bolton had told her not to interact with Giuliani, calling him “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”

That apparent recklessness was only reinforced when Giuliani set about his voter-fraud push even after it was known that he had been under federal investigation for other matters.

It remains to be seen just how much trouble he might be in. But Wednesday’s development is surely the biggest indication that he may be following in the long procession of top Trump aides to find their advocacy for the boss landing them in hot water.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[47of74]

And who can forget the late great Christmas Farley once played Ghouliani’s spawn on SNL. 
 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Remember Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony during Trump’s first impeachment? It looks like she may be getting some justice for the awful way she was ousted.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy...

[Alisamer]

I'm always a little amazed at the paranoia about being "spied upon" or "watched" or whatever. 

Alexa and Siri are always listening to me, and Facebook has given me ads for things mentioned in passing while my phone was in my purse. I'm sure if the government or anyone else wanted to spy on me, they could probably do so easily.

But why would they? If they want to watch or listen to me take a nap or watch youtube videos, they can, but my life is pretty boring I think. I'm not especially worried because I've done nothing to be worried about!

[AmazonGrace]

Paranoid and hypocritical since he used to be in charge of investigations just like this.

 

 

Why would Rudy have Hunter Biden's hard drives?

[AmazonGrace]

Rudy's entire defense consists of "why won't anybody think of Hunter Biden?"

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

Rudy's "dream team".

[front hugs > duggs]

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

Rudy's "dream team".

I almost didn't realize this was a joke until I got to the Roomba ?

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

Rudy's "dream team".

My money is on the Roomba. Only one of the team who actually is useful 

[smittykins]

I was thinking that the Roomba is the most qualified. ?

[thoughtful]

The problem will be to get Rudy to stop riding the Roomba around the courtroom, like a cat.

[onekidanddone]

3 hours ago, thoughtful said:

The problem will be to get Rudy to stop riding the Roomba around the courtroom, like a cat.

Just tell him it is a kracken 

[thoughtful]

3 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Just tell him it is a kracken 

But he'd like that! These people thought the kraken was the good guy!

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, thoughtful said:

But he'd like that! These people thought the kraken was the good guy!

They would probably all like Queen Cersei, King Joffrey, and the White Walkers, too.

[thoughtful]

4 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

They would probably all like Queen Cersei, King Joffrey, and the White Walkers, too.

The Borg, the Weeping Angels . . . they are basically backing the villains, let's face it.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Uh sure I am sure Lucy will hold the ball this time.

 

[SassyPants]

14 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Uh sure I am sure Lucy will hold the ball this time.

 

That has to be satire, right? Trump doesn’t even pay his own bills...

[GreyhoundFan]

From George Conway: "What Trump has to fear from Rudy Giuliani"

Quote

To borrow the infamous line of his ex-presidential ex-client, it looks like Rudolph W. Giuliani is “going to go through some things.” Like possibly being charged with a crime. Worse, some people who might have tried to save him from that fate might have actually guaranteed it.

In law and in life, things have a way of coming full circle. The quoted words come from the former president’s supposedly “perfect” phone call with Ukraine’s president, and described what could happen to the American ambassador there, Marie L. Yovanovitch. It was Giuliani’s relentless efforts that got her recalled.

Now that’s what might land poor Giuliani in the dock. Last week, the FBI showed up at his apartment at dawn, armed with a search warrant that reportedly focused on Yovanovitch’s firing. Questions the seized materials might answer: On whose behalf was Giuliani acting? Just Donald J. Trump, legal client? Or was Giuliani also representing Ukrainian officials who wanted the corruption-fighting diplomat gone?

If the latter, Giuliani might have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Giuliani denies any obligation to register — because, he says, he drafted his retainer agreements to disclaim lobbying or foreign representation.

Whatever happens, the investigation marks yet another step in Giuliani’s unimaginable fall from grace. The once-respected former federal prosecutor, New York mayor (“America’s mayor”!), presidential candidate and possible Cabinet pick, stands reduced to a laughingstock: shirt-tucking star of the “Borat” sequel, headliner for a news conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, and now defendant in a $1.3 billion defamation suit for having claimed that the long-dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez founded a voting software company that helped steal the presidency from Trump.

Even before he peddled nutso election-fraud claims, Giuliani had firmly established himself as one of the world’s worst lawyers. He’s the bumbler who blurted out on national TV that his client, Individual-1, had reimbursed a $130,000 payment made to a porn star, a transaction that triggered a sprawling and ongoing New York grand jury investigation into Trump’s overall business affairs.

The former first client wasn’t too thrilled about that. But he ought to be even more ticked about what came next: not one, but two, impeachments, both Rudy-enabled. Nobody — other than perhaps the impeachee himself — did more than Giuliani to get his client charged with high crimes and misdemeanors.

According to a transcript published last week of a Giuliani phone call with one of the Ukrainian president’s top aides, it was Giuliani who first urged the Ukrainians to announce a bogus investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden so Ukraine could have “a much better relationship” with the United States. It was Giuliani who told the media that his Ukrainian adventure “isn’t foreign policy,” but was meant to “be very, very helpful to my client.”

It wasn’t. It also wasn’t helpful for Giuliani to fill the former guy’s head with fertilizer for the Big Lie about the 2020 vote. But at least he’s loyal, standing alongside his client — and urging “trial by combat” — at the insurrectionist rally on Jan. 6 that led to impeachment No. 2.

All this boggles the mind of anyone who has followed Giuliani’s lengthy career. It’s as though someone dropped him on his head. Still, as a former associate attorney general and former U.S. attorney, he surely understands that federal search warrants against lawyers don’t just fall off trees. The Justice Department doesn’t like them, out of respect for the attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors will use them if they have really strong evidence a lawyer is up to no good, and if very senior personnel in Washington agree. And, of course, only with the blessing of a federal court.

That’s terrible news for Giuliani — just ask Michael Cohen, the last presidential lawyer raided by the FBI. It’s not good for the former guy, either. Giuliani’s travails have left him facing potentially staggering legal bills, which in apparent desperation he’s beseeching Trump to pay. And most important, Giuliani faces the prospect of jail.

If Giuliani has anything to offer prosecutors to save himself, it would have to be Trump, the only bigger fish left. And it was arguably criminal for the then-president to have used his official powers to try to coerce foreign officials into aiding his reelection campaign. In fact, Giuliani’s admission that he wasn’t conducting foreign policy, but merely helping Trump personally, is exactly what would make the scheme prosecutable. The former guy just might want to rethink stiffing Giuliani on those bills.

That’s not the ultimate irony of Giuliani’s predicament. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan tried to get permission last fall for a Giuliani raid but were rebuffed by senior officials serving under Trump. And last June, for reasons still opaque, then-Attorney General William P. Barr ousted the U.S. attorney there and tried to handpick a successor.

If any of that was intended to protect Giuliani — or Trump himself — it might end up backfiring spectacularly. If a warrant had been executed before Jan. 20, it’s hard to imagine that Trump wouldn’t have pardoned Giuliani, out of spite, self-interest or both.

Now it’s too late. As Giuliani cautioned on the newly disclosed transcript, “be careful of the people around you, because they can very easily, they can very easily get you into trouble.” That might be the only advice he gave that turned out to be right.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Awww, Rudes can't afford the lifestyle to which he's become accustomed.  Sad!  "Giuliani cuts down his entourage"

Quote

Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for ex-president Donald Trump, has reduced the size of his personal entourage, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Giuliani laid off several staffers and independent contractors in the last few weeks, according to one of the people, who said the ousted employees had been told that the former New York mayor was seeking to cut costs.

Giuliani has enlisted a part-time driver, Eric Ryan, the son of his friend Maria Ryan, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. But he no longer moves around Manhattan with the full complement of as many as five people he has kept around him in recent years. (Ryan didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

The news of Giuliani’s shrinking entourage comes after years of stories suggesting he might be having financial difficulties — or is at least seeking creative ways to make money as he manages his growing legal woes.

The Trump confidant, recently raided by the FBI as he faces an intensifying criminal probe, has reportedly faced a cash crunch before, with multiple divorces said to be taking a toll on his balance sheet. In October 2019, the Washington Post reported that Giuliani was giving his ex-wife Judith $42,000 a month in alimony; a sum amounting to more than half a million dollars a year. The Post also reported that Giuliani had made between $7 and $9 million in both 2016 and 2017.

That same month, Giuliani accidentally left a voicemail for a reporter in which he said, “The problem is we need some money.”

The remark, while cryptic, nonetheless reinforced the idea that the high-flying Giuliani — a frequent habitué of pricey outlets like the Trump International Hotel in D.C., where room rates can run in the high hundreds of dollars a night and a spoonful of wine can cost up to $140, and the Grand Havana Room, a members-only cigar bar in New York — was in need of cash. A lawyer for Giuliani’s wife also alleged in court documents that he dropped tens of thousands of dollars on a private jet subscription service, $40,000 for a friend’s son’s dental work, $7,000 on fountain pens and $12,000 on cigars.

Since leaving public office, Giuliani’s sources of income have been somewhat opaque. He has served as an attorney for Greenberg Traurig, a powerhouse international law firm whose largest office is in New York. In 2018, he left the firm amid a dispute over his public defense of Trump, according to the New York Times.

Giuliani has also done security and legal consulting for numerous entities, including foreign governments like Qatar and other high-profile clients ranging from Iranian opposition group MEK to a Ukrainian oligarch and a Turkish-Iranian gold trader wanted by the U.S. government.

In mid-November of last year, the New York Times reported that Giuliani had demanded $20,000 a day in legal fees in exchange for representing the ex-president as he contested the 2020 election. Though Giuliani had denied it, according to the Washington Post, Trump reportedly balked at the figure and told aides not to pay it. Giuliani allies, led by his son Andrew, also made a push this week to get Trump to pay for Giuliani’s mounting legal fees.

A lawyer for Giuliani declined to comment. Giuliani didn’t respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson didn’t provide a comment.

 

[47of74]

12 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Awww, Rudes can't afford the lifestyle to which he's become accustomed.  Sad!  "Giuliani cuts down his entourage"

 

Yeah Rudy Colludy can't afford the high life anymore which is why he's pestering fuck knob for money now.  I wonder if said fuck knob will pay just to keep Rudy from rolling over on him. (Yeah, I know, disgusting mental image.  Especially if he has his hands down there again while rolling over). 

Hey Rudy, I know.  Go call Borat and see if he can give you money.

[CTRLZero]

Just an update on Dominion Voting's lawsuit against Giuliani.  About a month ago, Rudy filed a motion to dismiss.  I see that Dominion has responded with basically "please don't" (using more legalese than that, of course).   I think Rudy has one more reply opportunity before the judge issues a decision, so I'll be interested in seeing what happens in the next few weeks.