Rudy Giuliani Explains To Jack Smith All The [TRUMP] Reasons [TRUMP] He Should Not Be Charged [TRUMP]

Sing it, dude.

Rudy Giuliani is not known for his his good judgment. The former prosecutor's shenanigans contributed to both of Donald Trump's impeachments, after Rudy spent all of 2019 traipsing around Ukraine in search of dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden, then devoted himself in late 2020 and early 2021 to overturning the results of the election. He also features in Trump's recent indictment in New York, thanks to his on-air admission to Sean Hannity in 2018 that Trump was laundering a reimbursement to Michael Cohen for the Stormy Daniels payment through the Trump Organization's books.

"When I heard of Cohen’s retainer for $130,000, he was doing no work for the president. I said, 'Well, that’s how he’s repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes for Michael,'" Rudy babbled , to the Fox host's increasing horror.

So Trumpland is probably suffering a collective round of dyspepsia that Rudy is now spilling his guts to Special Counsel Jack Smith about what happened in the lead-up to January 6. Because most of the time when Rudy thinks he's helping, he's very much not. 

The New York Times reports that Giuliani appeared last week for a proffer session at the DOJ focused on the fake electors scheme, fundraising by the campaign when its leaders were aware that election fraud claims were false, and the January 6 organizers' understanding of/plan regarding potential violence.

Rudy's PR flack Ted Goodman huffed to the Times that "The appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner." Which is all well and good, but the fact that it's taking place at all is a pretty clear sign that America's Erstwhile Mayor has realized that he's in trouble and is looking to avoid an indictment. During a proffer interview, sometimes called "Queen for a Day," a potential defendant lays out what he could give prosecutors if they want to trade. Nothing in the interview can later be used against the interviewee, unless he lies to the government.

Leave aside for the moment the issue of whether this asshole is able to distinguish between truth and falsity at this stage of his mental disintegration. Rudy was intimately involved in every part of the effort to overturn the 2020 election, personally pressing state legislators to steal electoral votes for Trump, pressuring the Justice Department to investigate fraudulent "election fraud" claims, and participating in the War Room at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC around the January 6 riot. He knew Trump was going to "spontaneously" announce that he'd be joining the crowd as they left the permitted rally on the Ellipse for the unpermitted march on the Capitol. And he was intimately involved with the campaign's efforts to solicit money for Trump's supposed legal efforts to ferret out election fraud, even though the litigation amounted to little more than a fig leaf claim in Georgia as pretext for the electors grab, as well as a disastrous effort by Rudy himself to get tens of thousands of absentee ballots tossed out in Pennsylvania.

And speaking of disastrous, CNN reports that Giuliani was accompanied on this visit to chat up Special Counsel Jack Smith by his buddy Robert Costello. Costello, like Giuliani a former federal prosecutor in New York, first emerged in Trumpland in a story about a purported pardon dangle to Michael Cohen during the Mueller Investigation — with Cohen being a former client whom Costello happily trashed in testimony before the grand jury in New York that later indicted Trump. He was later instrumental in bringing the "Hunter Biden Laptop" to the public. But he really hit his stride with Steve Bannon, whom he represented in his dealings with the House January 6 Select Committee.

Costello insisted that Trump had invoked executive privilege and instructed Bannon to refuse to appear at all. This was of course ridiculous, since Bannon got fired from the White House in 2017 and even Costello admitted that questions about the "War Room" podcast were outside the scope of privilege. But worse, it was provably false, since Trump's lawyer Justin Clark had already told him that Trump was not making a blanket invocation of privilege:

Just to reiterate, our letter referenced below [the October 6 letter] didn’t indicate that we believe there is immunity from testimony for your client. As I indicated to you the other day, we don’t believe there is. Now, you may have made a different determination. That is entirely your call. But as I also indicated the other day other avenues to invoke the privilege – if you believe it to be appropriate – exist and are your responsibility. If you haven’t already I’d encourage you again to contact counsel for the committee to discuss it further.

After Bannon gave the committee the finger, Costello approached the Justice Department in an effort to stop it from charging his client with contempt of Congress. His false claims at that meeting appear to have so alarmed the FBI that it sought a warrant for his communications. And indeed after relying on Costello's sage advice Bannon was arrested and then convicted of contempt anyway. All this might perhaps give another client pause if his goal was to avoid getting indicted himself.

But apparently not Rudy, who just knows his old pal Bob is the right man for the job. And if Rudy wants to put his future in Bob Costello's hands, well, who is Your Wonkette to criticize, right?

[ NYT / CNN ]

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