Tag: Rudy Giuliani

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Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized After Testing Positive For COVID

Rudy Giuliani at Trump press conference (screen capture)
Donald Trump announced today via Twitter that his lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has tested positive for COVID-19. From the New York Times:

Mr. Giuliani was at Georgetown University Medical Center, according to a person who was aware of his condition but not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Giuliani, at age 76, is in the high-risk category for the virus.

Mr. Giuliani has repeatedly been exposed to the virus through contact with infected people, including during Mr. Trump’s preparation for his first debate against President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. in September, just before the president tested positive, as well as when he appeared with his son, Andrew, at a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters about two weeks ago.

Andrew Giuliani, who works as an aide in the White House, said on Nov. 20 that he had tested positive, days after Donald Trump Jr. did.

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SNL Cold Open Takes On Giuliani’s ‘Star Witness’

The SNL cold open couldn’t resist taking on the media moment of the week: Rudy Giuliani’s seemingly drunk ‘star witness’ during a Michigan State Senate hearing. In the skit, Rudy Giuliani (Kate McKinnon) is trying to make an argument to prove widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. He presents former Dominion Systems staffer Melissa Carone (Cecily Strong): “I swear to tell my whole story, and nothing but my story so help me Gob.” Asked to present what she witnessed, Strong’s Carone replied, “Excuse me, maybe try losing the attitude first. Just like you lost all those Trump ballots.” “Did you check every poll? Did you talk to all the dead people? Excuse me. I have been threatened. My kids have been threatened. My kids have threatened me, and I’ve threatened them right back. … I’m not lying. I signed an After David.” After other ‘witnesses,’ Carone returns: “Excuse me we are all here under oath. If you want to talk about random. I voted for Trump yet Biden won? Hmm? Maybe a little bit too random. You aren’t even going to admit that Dominion cheated.” Asked how the voting machine company ‘cheated,’ Strong’s Carone answers, “Well, for starters they cheated me out of my cheesy bread.” “I think you’re confusing Dominion with Dominos,” says a lawmaker. “Either way, my vote took longer than 30 minutes so it’s supposed to be free,” Strong’s Carone snaps back.

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NY Times: Rudy Giuliani Discussed Pre-Emptive Pardon With Trump

Rudy Giuliani at Trump press conference (screen capture)
If anyone was wondering why Rudy Giuliani has argued so voraciously on Donald Trump’s behalf regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election, perhaps this is why. The New York Times reports Giuliani has broached the idea of a “pre-emptive pardon” with Trump before the Donald leaves office. From the Times:

It was not clear who raised the topic. The men had also talked previously about a pardon for Mr. Giuliani, according to the people. Mr. Trump has not indicated what he will do, one of the people said.

Mr. Giuliani’s potential criminal exposure is unclear. He was under investigation as recently as this summer by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his business dealings in Ukraine and his role in ousting the American ambassador there, a plot that was at the heart of the impeachment of Mr. Trump.

Giuliani clapped back at the idea that he’s asked for a pardon on Twitter after the Times posted its report.

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Rudy Giuliani Claims Trump ‘May Have Actually Won Virginia’

Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani

Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, told Republican lawmakers at a meeting in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that – in addition to believing Donald Trump won the Keystone State (he didn’t) – Trump “may have actually won Virginia” as well. Trump lost Virginia to Joe Biden by a margin of 451,138 votes. If Team Trump had come within 1 percent of winning in Virginia, don’t you think those results would have been bandied about and challenged publicly these last few weeks??? At the end of the day, Rudy and his team did not present ANY actual evidence of vote tampering or voter fraud. But keep talking Rudy… Bloomberg reporter Josh Wingrove followed the event on Twitter here.

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Randy Rainbow Skewers Rudy Giuliani Via ABBA-Tastic Parody

Randy Rainbow trolls Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani – “former mayor and soon-to-be-former lawyer of soon-to-be-former president, Donald Trump – with the query, with this parody of ABBA’s “Mamma Mia.”

Giuliani, here you go again Lie, lie, how can we believe you? Giuliani, gurl who let you in? Ay, ay, when will Donald leave you? Blowing his own defenses, flubbing his false pretenses, Can’t trust what he says on TV shows

Bravo Randy Rainbow on another wild and wacky ride through Trump Town. Hit play below 🙂

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Giuliani Paid $500k To Work For Ukrainian Businessmen Arrested Last Week

L-R Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani (screen captures)
It appears Rudy Giuliani worked for Donald Trump for free but received $500k of unknown funds from foreign actors, who are under arrest. And, was exempt from conflict of interest laws because he wasn’t made a special govt employee despite involvement in coordinating Trump’s meeting with Zelensky? From Reuters:

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was paid $500,000 for work he did for a company co-founded by the Ukrainian-American businessman arrested last week on campaign finance charges, Giuliani told Reuters on Monday.

The businessman, Lev Parnas, is a close associate of Giuliani and was involved in his effort to investigate Trump’s political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination.

Giuliani said Parnas’ company, Boca Raton-based Fraud Guarantee, whose website says it aims to help clients “reduce and mitigate fraud”, engaged Giuliani Partners, a management and security consulting firm, around August 2018. Giuliani said he was hired to consult on Fraud Guarantee’s technologies and provide legal advice on regulatory issues.

Federal prosecutors are “examining Giuliani’s interactions” with Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, who was also indicted on campaign finance charges, a law enforcement source told Reuters on Sunday.

The New York Times reported last week that Parnas had told associates he paid Giuliani hundreds of thousands of dollars for what Giuliani said was business and legal advice. Giuliani said for the first time on Monday that the total amount was $500,000.

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Giuliani Refuses To Testify Unless Adam Schiff Is ‘Removed’ As Chairman

Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the press today he will not appear before Congressional committee's unless Democrat Adam Schiff is removed as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Rudy Giuliani (screen capture)
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Post today that he would not appear before the House Intelligence Committee unless Chairman Adam Schiff is removed from his position. Not. Gonna. Happen. From the Washington Post:

Giuliani said Tuesday that he would not testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee and that he “can’t imagine” that anyone from the Trump administration would appear before the panel led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) either.

“The position I’m stating is now the position of the administration,” Giuliani said in an interview in which he revealed that the administration has written a letter that will be released soon saying that Schiff’s committee is illegitimate.

“I wouldn’t testify in front of that committee until there is a vote of Congress and he [Schiff] is removed,” Giuliani said, referring to Republican calls for a full House vote on an impeachment inquiry and the removal of Schiff as the committee’s chairman.

That’s a little like saying, “I will play your team as long as LeBron does not play…” In related news, three House committee chairmen announced that they will issue a subpoena to compel testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, hours after learning he failed to appear for a deposition. Sondland was apparently ordered by the State Department not to appear. “We consider this interference to be obstruction of the impeachment inquiry,” the three committee chairmen said in a statement Tuesday. “We will be issuing a subpoena to Ambassador Sondland for both his testimony and documents.” Shortly before he was scheduled to appear before Congress, Trump blocked Sondland’s testimony calling the committee’s “a kangaroo court.” Although Sondland’s position does not involve Ukraine officially, recent reports of text messages indicate he was central to the conversations between the White House’s request to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and the newly-elected president of Ukraine.

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Lindsey Graham Invites Giuliani To Testify Before Senate Committee

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted an invitation to Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, an invitation to testify before his committee. In his Twitter invitation, Graham references “corruption in Ukraine and the many improprieties surrounding the firing of former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.” Giuliani alleges that when Joe Biden was vice president, he had a Shokin dismissed to stop an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company that Biden’s son Hunter was involved in between 2014 and 2018. Biden has dismissed the claims and no evidence to date has surfaced to support them. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) responded to Graham’s tweets with her own message, “Good. I have questions.”

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Ukraine Prosecutor: Hunter Biden “Did Not Violate Anything”

L-R Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani (screen captures)
A former Ukraine prosecutor says Hunter Biden ‘did not violate anything’ in regard to Donald Trump’s ongoing allegations about the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. From MSN.com:

“From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything,” former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko told The Washington Post in his first interview since the disclosure of a whistleblower complaint alleging pressure by President Trump on Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky.

Lutsenko’s comments about Hunter Biden — which echo what he told Bloomberg News in May — were significant, because Trump and his personal attorney Giuliani have sought to stir up suspicions about both Hunter and former vice president Joe Biden’s conduct in Ukraine in recent weeks. Joe Biden is leading Trump in many opinion polls ahead of the 2020 election.

Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing, and there is no evidence he was involved in any lawbreaking in his work in Ukraine with the country’s largest private gas company.

Giuliani has alleged that Hunter Biden was involved in corruption during his nearly five years on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company. Giuliani has not offered any evidence.

Burisma’s owner came under scrutiny by Lutsenko’s predecessors for possible abuse of power and unlawful enrichment, but Hunter Biden was never accused of any wrongdoing in the investigation.

“Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival,” Lutsenko said.

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Ukraine Envoy Told Giuliani Info Regarding Biden Was ‘Untrustworthy’

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani (screen capture)
Via the Washington Post:

The former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told House investigators on Thursday that he warned President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Giuliani was receiving untrustworthy information from Ukrainian political figures about former vice president Joe Biden and his son, according to two people familiar with his testimony.

Kurt Volker, who resigned last week after being named in a whistleblower complaint that sparked the House impeachment inquiry of Trump, said he tried to caution Guiliani that his sources, including Ukraine’s former top prosecutor, were unreliable and that he should be careful about putting faith in the prosecutor’s theories, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

Volker’s testimony offers the first inside account of the Trump administration’s efforts to press for a Ukrainian investigation into Biden, who as a leading 2020 Democratic candidate to challenge Trump for the White House has become a fixed target of the president’s attacks.

ABC News adds that text messages have come to light that shows two American diplomats discussing the Trump administration withholding military aid. In the texts,  the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine writes to two other American diplomats that “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”