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Saturday, December 08, 2018 8:26:49 PM
How Rudy Giuliani Turned Into Trump’s Clown
"Giuliani was more honest to the people back then. Now it looks he is being more honest to himself."
The former mayor’s theatrical, combative style of politics anticipated—and perfectly aligns with—the President’s.
By Jeffrey Toobin September 10, 2018 Issue
Giuliani, like the President, is not seeking converts but comforting the converted.
Illustration by Barry Blitt
[...]
Giuliani’s behavior has provoked disgust among some of his former fellow-prosecutors. “He has totally sold out to Trump,” John S. Martin, a predecessor to Giuliani as U.S. Attorney who later became a federal judge, said. “He’s making arguments that don’t hold up. I always thought of Rudy as a good lawyer, and he’s not looking anything like a good lawyer today.” Preet Bharara, who served as U.S. Attorney from 2009 until 2017, when he was fired by Trump, told me, “His blatant misrepresentations on television make me sad. It’s sad because I looked up to him at one point, and this bespeaks a sort of cravenness to a particularly hyperbolic client and an unnecessary suspension of honor and truth that’s beneath him. I would not send Rudy at this point in his career into court.” Giuliani’s desire for attention and publicity has always been at odds with the buttoned-up traditions of the Southern District of New York. In 2014, some seven hundred current and former prosecutors for the Southern District met for a gala dinner to celebrate the two-hundred-and-twenty-fifth anniversary of the office. Almost every former U.S. Attorney still living gave a speech—except Giuliani, who sent a video, with the excuse that he was attending to his duties as an “ambassador” to the U.S. Ryder Cup golf team. The announcement was greeted with derisive laughter.
[...]
Giuliani has sown abundant confusion about the facts underlying Mueller’s investigation. One of the key questions in the obstruction-of-justice inquiry is whether Trump encouraged Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn, then the national-security adviser, who was under investigation for lying to the F.B.I. At first, Giuliani seemed to acknowledge that Trump had asked Comey to give Flynn “a break.” In more recent statements, Giuliani has denied that Trump even discussed Flynn with Comey. His comments about the notorious Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016, between campaign officials and the Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, have similarly devolved into falsehoods. In an August appearance on “Meet the Press,” Giuliani asserted that the campaign officials, including Kushner and Donald Trump, Jr., “didn’t know she was a representative of the Russian government, and, indeed, she’s not a representative of the Russian government, so this is much ado about nothing.” The e-mail that led to the meeting, sent to Trump, Jr., explicitly said that the gathering was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
At times, Giuliani’s arguments have verged on thuggish irrationality. In mid-August, he told reporters at Bloomberg that Mueller should complete the investigation by September so as not to interfere with the midterm elections. He added, “If he doesn’t get it done in the next two or three weeks we will just unload on him like a ton of bricks.”
[...]
Marc Mukasey, a former prosecutor with the Southern District and a longtime law partner and protégé of Giuliani, told me, “This is not the kind of advocacy—quiet, stealthy, serious—that you would engage in for a typical white-collar criminal defendant. This is a totally different animal. This is the defense of the President of the United States in a very public arena, where there are former prosecutors on TV every night prosecuting an imaginary case against the guy. Rudy has always been a passionate advocate, and he was not a shrinking violet when he was the mayor. He is a lifelong opera fan, and he’s an operatic guy. Everybody who asks what’s wrong with Rudy—the answer is, nothing.”
[...]
Giuliani, like Trump, has created the illusion of coöperation without the risks of actual coöperation. At times, it seems that he’s just going through the motions of negotiating with Mueller. “We were pretty close a few times to an agreement, but we couldn’t quite get it across the goal line,” he told me. “There were disputes about time, disputes about questions in advance, disputes about whether they can only ask questions about collusion.” At one point, Giuliani told me, he proposed that Trump answer questions, but only about the period before he became President.
In public, Giuliani’s reasons for refusing an interview have moved away from constitutional principle and toward political pique. He now says that Mueller is too biased, too fanatical, to interview the President. Giuliani said on Fox, “You’re a lawyer—would you walk your client into a kangaroo court with guys who donated thirty-six thousand dollars to his opponent, cried at her loss party, represented the scoundrel who broke the hard drive?” James Quarles, a member of Mueller’s staff, donated about thirty-three thousand dollars to Democrats; there is no evidence that Mueller staffers cried at Clinton’s defeat; the reference to the hard drive, in this context, is a mystery.
“Look! I still fit into my old caterpillar skin.”
Giuliani’s animus toward Mueller precipitated what may be his most notorious recent gaffe. He has objected to the interview by saying that the President’s words may conflict with those of other witnesses, leading Mueller to conclude that Trump is lying—what Giuliani calls a “perjury trap.” This is a contrived objection, since any reasonable prosecutor would look at a range of evidence, especially corroborating witnesses and documents. In an August 19th interview on “Meet the Press,” the host, Chuck Todd, asked Giuliani whether a perjury trap could even exist, since a witness who told the truth couldn’t be trapped. Giuliani responded, “When you tell me that he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well, that’s so silly, because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth.”
Todd responded, “Truth is truth.”
“No, it isn’t truth,” Giuliani said. “Truth isn’t truth.”
it's another long one - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/how-rudy-giuliani-turned-into-trumps-clown
"Giuliani was more honest to the people back then. Now it looks he is being more honest to himself."
The former mayor’s theatrical, combative style of politics anticipated—and perfectly aligns with—the President’s.
By Jeffrey Toobin September 10, 2018 Issue
Giuliani, like the President, is not seeking converts but comforting the converted.
Illustration by Barry Blitt
[...]
Giuliani’s behavior has provoked disgust among some of his former fellow-prosecutors. “He has totally sold out to Trump,” John S. Martin, a predecessor to Giuliani as U.S. Attorney who later became a federal judge, said. “He’s making arguments that don’t hold up. I always thought of Rudy as a good lawyer, and he’s not looking anything like a good lawyer today.” Preet Bharara, who served as U.S. Attorney from 2009 until 2017, when he was fired by Trump, told me, “His blatant misrepresentations on television make me sad. It’s sad because I looked up to him at one point, and this bespeaks a sort of cravenness to a particularly hyperbolic client and an unnecessary suspension of honor and truth that’s beneath him. I would not send Rudy at this point in his career into court.” Giuliani’s desire for attention and publicity has always been at odds with the buttoned-up traditions of the Southern District of New York. In 2014, some seven hundred current and former prosecutors for the Southern District met for a gala dinner to celebrate the two-hundred-and-twenty-fifth anniversary of the office. Almost every former U.S. Attorney still living gave a speech—except Giuliani, who sent a video, with the excuse that he was attending to his duties as an “ambassador” to the U.S. Ryder Cup golf team. The announcement was greeted with derisive laughter.
[...]
Giuliani has sown abundant confusion about the facts underlying Mueller’s investigation. One of the key questions in the obstruction-of-justice inquiry is whether Trump encouraged Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn, then the national-security adviser, who was under investigation for lying to the F.B.I. At first, Giuliani seemed to acknowledge that Trump had asked Comey to give Flynn “a break.” In more recent statements, Giuliani has denied that Trump even discussed Flynn with Comey. His comments about the notorious Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016, between campaign officials and the Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, have similarly devolved into falsehoods. In an August appearance on “Meet the Press,” Giuliani asserted that the campaign officials, including Kushner and Donald Trump, Jr., “didn’t know she was a representative of the Russian government, and, indeed, she’s not a representative of the Russian government, so this is much ado about nothing.” The e-mail that led to the meeting, sent to Trump, Jr., explicitly said that the gathering was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
At times, Giuliani’s arguments have verged on thuggish irrationality. In mid-August, he told reporters at Bloomberg that Mueller should complete the investigation by September so as not to interfere with the midterm elections. He added, “If he doesn’t get it done in the next two or three weeks we will just unload on him like a ton of bricks.”
[...]
Marc Mukasey, a former prosecutor with the Southern District and a longtime law partner and protégé of Giuliani, told me, “This is not the kind of advocacy—quiet, stealthy, serious—that you would engage in for a typical white-collar criminal defendant. This is a totally different animal. This is the defense of the President of the United States in a very public arena, where there are former prosecutors on TV every night prosecuting an imaginary case against the guy. Rudy has always been a passionate advocate, and he was not a shrinking violet when he was the mayor. He is a lifelong opera fan, and he’s an operatic guy. Everybody who asks what’s wrong with Rudy—the answer is, nothing.”
[...]
Giuliani, like Trump, has created the illusion of coöperation without the risks of actual coöperation. At times, it seems that he’s just going through the motions of negotiating with Mueller. “We were pretty close a few times to an agreement, but we couldn’t quite get it across the goal line,” he told me. “There were disputes about time, disputes about questions in advance, disputes about whether they can only ask questions about collusion.” At one point, Giuliani told me, he proposed that Trump answer questions, but only about the period before he became President.
In public, Giuliani’s reasons for refusing an interview have moved away from constitutional principle and toward political pique. He now says that Mueller is too biased, too fanatical, to interview the President. Giuliani said on Fox, “You’re a lawyer—would you walk your client into a kangaroo court with guys who donated thirty-six thousand dollars to his opponent, cried at her loss party, represented the scoundrel who broke the hard drive?” James Quarles, a member of Mueller’s staff, donated about thirty-three thousand dollars to Democrats; there is no evidence that Mueller staffers cried at Clinton’s defeat; the reference to the hard drive, in this context, is a mystery.
“Look! I still fit into my old caterpillar skin.”
Giuliani’s animus toward Mueller precipitated what may be his most notorious recent gaffe. He has objected to the interview by saying that the President’s words may conflict with those of other witnesses, leading Mueller to conclude that Trump is lying—what Giuliani calls a “perjury trap.” This is a contrived objection, since any reasonable prosecutor would look at a range of evidence, especially corroborating witnesses and documents. In an August 19th interview on “Meet the Press,” the host, Chuck Todd, asked Giuliani whether a perjury trap could even exist, since a witness who told the truth couldn’t be trapped. Giuliani responded, “When you tell me that he should testify because he’s going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well, that’s so silly, because it’s somebody’s version of the truth. Not the truth.”
Todd responded, “Truth is truth.”
“No, it isn’t truth,” Giuliani said. “Truth isn’t truth.”
it's another long one - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/how-rudy-giuliani-turned-into-trumps-clown
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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