Exclusive: @AriMelber reports in addition to Rudy Giuliani, Trump is now also "getting privileged legal advice" from his lawyer for 20 years, before Michael Cohen, Jay Goldberg pic.twitter.com/JVrSDSPsd6
— The Beat with Ari Melber 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) April 19, 2018
In a statement late yesterday, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow announced that Rudy Giuliani is joining Trump’s legal team, along with two former federal prosecutors, Jane Serene Raskin and Martin Raskin.
Just thought I’d remind you of a story written by the late great investigative reporter Wayne Barrett in September 2016:
Rudy and Donald first got together in the late 1980s shortly before Donald became a co-chair of Giuliani’s first fundraiser for his 1989 mayoral campaign, sitting on the Waldorf dais and steering $41,000 to the campaign. A year earlier, Tony Lombardi, the federal agent closest to then-U.S. Attorney Giuliani, opened a probe of Trump’s role in the suspect sale of two Trump Tower apartments to Robert Hopkins, the mob-connected head of the city’s largest gambling ring.
Trump attended the closing himself and Hopkins arrived with a briefcase loaded with up to $200,000 in cash, a deposit the soon-to-felon counted at the table. Despite Hopkins’ wholesale lack of verifiable income or assets, he got a loan from a Jersey bank that did business with Trump’s casino. A Trump limo delivered the cash to the bank.
The government subsequently nailed Hopkins’ mortgage broker, Frank LaMagra, on an unrelated charge and he offered to give up Donald, claiming Trump “participated” in the money-laundering — and volunteering to wear a wire on him.
Instead, Lombardi, who discussed the case with Giuliani personally (and with me for a 1993 Village Voice piece called “The Case of the Missing Case”), went straight to Donald for two hour-long interviews with him. Within weeks of the interviews, Donald announced he’d raise $2 million in a half hour if Rudy ran for mayor. Lamagra got no deal and was convicted, as was his mob associate, Louis (Louie HaHa) Attanasio, who was later also nailed for seven underworld murders. Hopkins was convicted of running his gambling operation partly out of the Trump Tower apartment, where he was arrested.
Lombardi — who expected a top appointment in a Giuliani mayoralty, conducted several other probes directly tied to Giuliani political opponents, and testified later that “every day I came to work I went to Mr. Giuliani to seek out what duties I needed to perform” — closed the Trump investigation without even giving it a case number. That meant that New Jersey gaming authorities would never know it existed.
You get the gist, right? Trump and Giuliani are old pals.
Now, what the hell is Rudy Giuliani doing on Trump’s legal team, when it’s widely believed he is a material witness in the Mueller probe? Giuliani was representing Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman and alleged money launderer, while Mike Flynn was also working on his behalf. He also has extensive ties to Russia.
Remember when Rudy Giuliani tried to broker a U.S.-Turkey prisoner swap last year? https://t.co/P9OJCabXox
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 19, 2018
Not to mention, everyone thought he was under investigation for his role in the October surprise.
Here’s a refresher on Giuliani & the rogue FBI agents who helped elect Trump: https://t.co/p5G0lVdSZR pic.twitter.com/2FNJUtc31C
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 19, 2018
Like Michael Cohen, Rudy is basically a fixer — but at a much higher and lucrative level. What does Trump expect Rudy to do? Lobby Congress to fire Rosenstein and Mueller? Rudy told the New York Post that he was joining the team “because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller.”
The same Rudy Giuliani that’s in the dossier and in this photo with high-ranking members of Alfa Bank?
Solid plan. What could go wrong? pic.twitter.com/UHMJzNFqs2
— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) April 19, 2018
How can one person have “high regard” for Trump and Bob Mueller? Ha, ha! It’s a puzzle. What do other observers think?
Why does my gut tell me Giuliani joining Trump's legal team in reality has little to do with Mueller, and much more to do with Cohen and how to negotiate the legal terrain in NY, especially as the NY AG threatens to change rules so Trump can't pardon Cohen.
— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) April 19, 2018
Trump permanently lives in the 80s, which is about the last time Giuliani practiced this kind of law. https://t.co/knqfIJCri5
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) April 19, 2018
and that Giuliani hasn't spent one day of his career working as a defense attorney https://t.co/vwnUrRhGm1
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) April 19, 2018
Rudy Giuliani is there to obstruct justice. This is obvious. His 2016 scheming makes that clear. https://t.co/6MebGw2BOX
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/ManInTheHoody/status/987090860255756288
https://twitter.com/Toure/status/987097981391392768
Over dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Giuliani says Trump floated him joining the legal team because he wanted his advice. Giuliani told him, "Look, I'll give it to you anyway.”
He’s joining the team as an unpaid volunteer, taking a leave of absence from his firm.https://t.co/FjO9v1L5rT
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) April 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/Anthony/status/987077377900597248
FDR appointed Joe Kennedy to be the 1st Chairman of the SEC because he knew just how big a crook and Wall Street manipulator old Joe was.
Trump (John Gotti) wants as his new lawyer to be Rudy Giuliani (Bruce Cutler).
Giuliani knows all about the mob(s) life.
He knows all the actors and all the bosses.
Which makes Giuliani more like Roy Cohen, another corupt mob lawyer, then Michael Cohen, fixer.
The Trump investigation has been following the money.
That trail has led them to the indisputable fact that Trump has been borrowing money from corrupt Russian oligarchs (the mob bosses) close to Putin for decades.
Trump owes them and they ‘own’ him.
Note: If Giuliani can pull a rabbit out of his hat and get Trump off the hook, then Rudy will be the next US Supreme Court Justice.