Donald Trump’s lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, seems to have escaped from the doghouse. After months on TV telling lies and saying strange, indecipherable things, Giuliani disappeared from public view. Now he has reappeared and he is right back at it, making comments that can best be described as bizarre.
It’s not clear whether Giuliani is officially off the leash or if his new comments were made without Trump administration approval. Regardless, Reuters reported yesterday:
“Under an unusual arrangement, Paul Manafort’s attorney has kept Donald Trump informed about the former campaign chairman’s meetings with prosecutors investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and, according to Trump’s lawyer, Manafort has not said anything damaging about the president.”
“Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the Russia probe, told Reuters that he had spoken with Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, as recently as last week.”
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“Giuliani said the conversations were occurring under a so-called joint defense agreement, which allows lawyers who represent different clients to exchange information without violating attorney-client privilege.”
“Legal experts said it was unusual for such an agreement to remain in effect after a person pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with prosecutors as Manafort has done.
Manafort is talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller “about a lot of things, none of which are incriminating with regard to the president,” Giuliani said in one of several conversations with Reuters this month.”
But here’s the thing: what Giuliani is reported as saying cannot be true.
Paul Manafort now works for Bob Mueller, and Mueller would not allow a “joint defense agreement.” If he did allow this to continue, then Manafort and his attorney could tell Giuliani and Trump everything going on inside the special counsel’s investigation.
Mueller would never let this happen. You can only have a joint defense agreement where there is a common interest between two defendants who are both being prosecuted for the same crimes. Since Manafort pleaded guilty, he is no longer being prosecuted and doesn’t have need of a defense agreement.
Clearly Giuliani is telling lies again. Apparently he can’t help himself. The question here is: why is he doing it? What good does it do his client Donald Trump to lie about something like this?
The answer is it does no good legally, but it helps Giuliani by getting in the headlines again with what appears to be good news for his boss. Giuliani may be saying these things only to make Trump feel better.
Paul Manafort has sold out Donald Trump, and he knows it (and Giuliani knows it). While waiting for the shoe to drop from Mueller, they can make themselves feel better by living in a fantasy world, and that appears to be what Rudy Giuliani is doing.
Bob Mueller is waiting until after the midterms to reveal the next steps in his strategy. We don’t know exactly what will happen next, but we do know that it won’t be good news for Donald Trump.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
