Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor famed for his tough approach to crime, and once the personal lawyer for former President Donald Trump, may turn on his former boss.
That’s if reporting from CNN and the New York Times is to be believed.
According to the outlets, Giuliani recently met with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by the Biden administration to establish a criminal investigation into the January 6 protests of 2021.
What the New York Times Said
In a June 28 report, the Times wrote that Giuliani was interviewed by federal prosecutors under what’s known as a “proffer agreement” – a written contract between a defendant and a prosecutor whereby the defendant agrees to provide information that will not be used against them in any future proceedings.
The report suggested that Giuliani was grilled on a number of issues relating to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to expose election malpractice and fraud in 2020. Prosecutors specifically asked Giuliani about John Eastman, a lawyer who allegedly led Trump’s efforts to overturn the results through Vice President Mike Pence, who potentially could have rejected the electoral college vote on January 6.
At such an early stage, however, it’s hard to know what Giuliani is planning – if he is planning anything at all – and if prosecutors are looking to issue a new round of criminal indictments against the former president and his backers.
Giuliani Has Reason to Flip on Donald Trump
Giuliani may well be a Trump loyalist, and he has been one of the most ardent defenders of Trump and his assertion that he won the 2020 presidential election. He was the man who led the legal efforts to empower state legislatures to reject the Electoral College electors in the wake of the 2020 election, after all.
But that support can only go so far when Giuliani has endured ridicule and legal turmoil over his support for the former president. In 2021, Giuliani was named in a suit by Dominion Voting Systems, which alleges that he and the former president defamed the company. Dominion sought $1.3 billion from Giuliani alone.
Reports from January 2021 also claimed that the former president was “refusing to pay” Giuliani’s legal fees after the pair had a disagreement.
With that in mind – and with the prospect of being named in an arguably politically-charged criminal suit against the former president and his staff – Giuliani has several good reasons to cooperate with prosecutors. Even if he hates them, and they hate him.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
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