Rudy...Rudy...Rudy...
Rudy Giuliani seems a good place to dive in today with a few comments.
It begins with the foundational thought that Mr. Giuliani is screwed. I also happen to think he's guilty as sin -- which I say, in part, from observation over the past four years, and in part from the reality that for the FBI to get a search warrant for the personal lawyer to a then-president, they have to show a massive amount of existing evidence to a judge before he'll sign off on it. Now, that doesn't mean he'll be convicted, because that means they'll have to convince a jury to believe their evidence and not the defense, but it's still a tough starting point. Especially since all the evidence the FBI will collect won't just be about his foreign dealings, but...well, everything. Everything from his papers, everything from his emails, everything from his texts, everything from his mobile phone, everything from his financial records, everything that they could find in his house -- about everything. But I think he's screwed for another reason entirely.
It's that Giuliani has been claiming that he's not an agent for any foreign country, he hasn't received any money from any foreign country, he merely was the lawyer for Trump and doing everything for Trump at Trump's orders. The problem with this (other that it's fanciful, because what personal lawyer for a president goes on foreign mission? And who think's Trump paid him much and that he did all that work for free...) is that to prove it, Giuliani needs Trump to testify under oath in court that, yes, everything Giuliani did with foreign governments was because he ordered it.
There is no earthly way that Trump is going to testify under oath in court on behalf of some other person about anything. And if for some reason he got a subpoena and was dragged into court against his will and had to take an oath, he is not ever going to say that he ordered Rudy Giuliani to deal with foreign countries. This is not the movies, and not Jack Nicholson in A Few Bad Men shouting from the witness stand, "You're damn right I ordered the Code Red!!!!" The closest Trump will come to that is if he says, "No, I didn't order that at all."
So, it will be Rudy Giuliani on the one hand, insisting something that the person he's insisting he took orders from refusing to say he gave Giuliani those orders -- and on the other hand the U.S. Department of Justice laying out days and day and days and days of evidence.
So, yes, Rudy Giuliani is screwed. His best chance is throwing himself on the mercy of the court and making a plea deal and giving as much evidence as he can against Trump, Jared Kushner, Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, the Trump kids and anyone else he can think of.
And just because I want to leave with a good taste and go out on a far-better Rudy, we'll end with this.
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