“I like going to jail”: Giuliani “almost broke”, Trump doesn’t help

“I like going to jail”
Giuliani “almost broke”, Trump doesn’t help

From Roland Peters

He is one of the key figures in the Trump universe. Or was it? Rudy Giuliani is being investigated from several sides. The lawyer probably lacks the money for his legal defense, an appeal for donations flopped. Trump should ignore him.

Rudy Giuliani is finding it harder and harder to defend himself. As of 2018, the lawyer was one of the most important employees of ex-US President Donald Trump. He hasn’t been in the White House for a long time, the political wind has turned. Giuliani is now being attacked legally from many sides at the same time. He knows that he may not come out of all the investigation unscathed: “I am more than ready to go to jail if you want to put me in jail. And if you do, you will suffer the consequences in heaven” he said in an interview with NBC. At the same time, he emphasized several times that he was innocent.

In April, FBI domestic intelligence investigators raided Giuliani’s New York City premises, confiscating cell phones and computers. It’s about his role in the Ukraine affair. Giuliani had tried in the Eastern European country to collect political ammunition against Trump’s later presidential rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. For this, the lawyer was appointed by Trump as in charge. He was never an official member of the US government, but Trump’s personal lawyer. One of the allegations is that Giuliani had not registered as a foreign interest representative.

Giuliani supported Trump in his attempt to win the court election.

(Photo: REUTERS)

For the former mayor of New York City, there is still another legal hardship: For example, he is said to have lobbyed Trump in the interests of the Turkish government; Voting machine operator Dominion Systems also sued him for defamation, as Giuliani had repeatedly accused the company of election manipulation. His professional license has been suspended since June because, as a lawyer, he repeatedly made false statements about alleged electoral fraud. One could also say: Because Giuliani lied for Trump to support his unwillingness to recognize his election defeat against Joe Biden.

Giuliani’s environment “horrified”

Now Giuliani is apparently running out of money for his defense. He was “almost broke,” writes Maggie Haberman, a reporter for the New York Times. She relies on friends of the lawyer. Trump should no longer be one of them. Giuliani acted on his behalf until February, but the ex-president does not want to give him any money: neither for his work nor as support. Giuliani’s environment is “horrified,” writes Haberman. In support of this, Trump’s employees say it would be problematic to pay for Giuliani’s legal costs: “As a lawyer, he should have known that his actions were problematic, even if the client (Trump) wanted it that way.”

The ex-president would have enough money. In the first half of the year, Trump is said to have raised more than $ 100 million in donations, more than any other Republican politician, reported the New York Times. Giuliani’s appeal for donations for his legal expenses, however, including a crowdfunding campaign with a funding goal of $ 5 million, were total blowouts.

77-year-old Giuliani has had a long career. In the 1980s he acted under Republican President Ronald Reagan in the third highest position in the Justice Department, after which he became a federal attorney in New York. He made a name for himself with successful investigations against the Mafia and on Wall Street. He was mayor of the city from 1994 until after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and was long considered a progressive Republican. Now, decades later, the Manhattan prosecutor’s office is investigating the former boss.

“Just say we won”

When it became clear at the end of last year that Trump would lose the election against Biden, an alcoholized Giuliani is said to have shaken the still valid strategy up his sleeve: “Just say we won,” he said, according to the book “I Alone Can Fix.” It “. Because Giuliani could not back up the claim with evidence, he lost his lawyer license. But so far Giuliani has continued to try to defend himself, Trump and the very own truth of an entire wing of the party for the election.

Trump could make himself legally more vulnerable if he financed Giuliani’s defense directly. But this is only part of the fears in the ex-president’s camp. If Trump wanted, there would be other ways to give him a hand. Legal caution also means that Trump and his employees doubt Giuliani’s loyalty.

Trump has been betrayed once before by a close personal associate in connection with his presidency. Attorney Michael Cohen broke away from the president during the investigation into Trump’s Russia affair and unpacked against him to reduce his own sentence. “He’s a really bad person”, Giuliani rumbled at the time, calling Cohen a “traitor” and a “bastard”.

Trump employees fear such a change of heart at Giuliani himself. “Even the most loyal people have a break,” one of them told CNN in May. With Giuliani this could be achieved if he were threatened with prison: “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.” Giuliani has now admitted that he could go behind bars.

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