Rudy Guliani is back in the news after meeting with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team to discuss the DOJ’s criminal investigation into the January 6th riot.
Now, the media is speculating over whether Guliani will turn on Donald Trump, in providing prosecutors with insider information that could be damning for the former president.
“Much of that speculation is hype over the reporting by The New York Times and CNN that Guliani met with prosecutors under conditions known as “proffer.” But proffers do not always lead to a cooperation agreement. Rather they are a method by which white-collar defense lawyers seek to prove what the prosecutor’s interests is in the client and to see if they can assuage any suspicions by the prosecution that the client has committed crimes,” The Daily Beast reported.
What did the DOJ ask Guliani about?
It seems that the DOJ questioned Guliani, mainly, about the fallout from the 2020 election.
Namely, prosecutors asked Guliani about John Eastman and Sidney Powell. Eastman floated theories on how Trump could procedurally overturn the 2020 election results, while Powell made false claims about the hacking of voting machines.
Guliani, of course, was front and center in Trump world while all of this was unfolding. So, the natural question is: will Guliani be charged, too?
Will Guliani be charged?
The short answer is that we don’t know if Guliani will be charged yet – it is still too early to tell.
As a proffer, Guliani can have two distinct sets of conditions, depending on his specific arrangement with the DOJ. The first “is where the client does not speak or even show up and it is merely the defense counsel who meets with agents and prosecutors to explain what their client would say in the hope that it will lessen interest in charging the client.
The second proffer arrangement “is where the actual client if offered up to speak to the prosecutors.” Under the second arrangement, the proffer is guaranteed that nothing they say will be used against them – unless they lie, that is.
Guliani likely met with Smith’s team under the second arrangement.
“It is likely that the very first question from Guliani’s legal team was whether he was a target and just as likely that DOJ would be coy about answering that question. The reason for the coyness is that telling the lawyers that Guliani is a target likely would trigger the lawyers to demand some form of immunity in return for Guliani being questioned, which is a road prosecutors do not like to go down unless absolutely necessary,” The Daily Beast reported.
Guliani should know the process well – he was formerly the number 3 man at DOJ, and formerly a US Attorney. Accordingly, he probably offered “measured cooperation” as opposed to outright resistance, in an effort to assuage federal prosecutors.
Will Donald Trump be charged?
Who knows.
It’s clear now that the DOJ is willing to indict a former president, a point demonstrated last month when Trump was indicted on 37-counts related to the DOJ’s classified documents investigation.
Whether charges are brought in the January 6th investigation will depend on whether a sufficient amount of evidence can be compiled – and that’s where insiders like Rudy Guliani come in.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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