President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claims that he was in discussions this summer to get involved with another Ukrainian legal dispute, in addition to the others that touched upon his pressure campaign for political dirt on behalf of the President.
If there’s a dirty buck to be made, Rudy will be right there with his pockets open. No patriotism towards the US or fealty towards any ethics, No, Siree. Just trust Rudy. This man needs to be disbarred immediately.
Rudes The Crook. When will the ABA step up and do its job?
Giuliani is the Everready Bunny of geriatric serial grifters; grifting and grifting and …
Rudy, the 9/11 Mafia…
That picture of Giuliani is hard to look at.
Reckless, without ethics, arrogant, undisciplined, corrupt. That’s Rudy!
Since the Thursday impeachment hearing, we’ve learned a lot about Rudy Giuliani, Devin Nunes and Mike Pompeo’s nefarious roles and activities. There’s so much info, I don’t know where to begin, but I guess I’ll start with the article by the NYT which unravels Rudy’s scheme to essentially bribe UKR oligarchs with legal vulnerabilities in exchange for Biden dirt.
This largely confirms the suspicions and reporting of TPM’s Josh Kovensky. Rudy worked 3 tracks, 2 of which the NYT covers well, and 1 of which they leave open.
Track 1 - Dmitry Firtash
As many on this site know, Firtash is/was the front for the Russian mob and the Kremlin in Ukraine. Firtash is under indictment in Fed court in Chicago for bribery (bribed some Indian pols as part of a global scheme which had ties in the US). He is in Austria and is fighting extradition.
Rudy offered Firtash a deal: give Rudy dirt on Biden, Rudy will provide well connected lawyers (Toensing/DiGenova) who will work the case and get it dismissed or at least some key evidence invalidated to give you a shot. Parnas and Fruman worked that deal and Firtash bought in. One of the things Toensing/DiGenova did is raid Firtash’s files for Biden dirt and got a statement from the former prosecutor (whom Biden removed) Viktor Shokin, which got released to Rudy and others pushing this angle. Toensing/DiGenova did meet with Barr, but it doesn’t look like Barr did much other than to refer them to the prosecutors running the case.
Track 2 - Ihor Kolomoisky
IK is one of the richest oligarchs in UKR and is the backer of Zelensky. Zelensky’s win came as a shock to Team Trump and they had no connections to him (which is why Trump/Rudy were so skeptical and put the squeeze on from the beginning). Rudy dispatched Parnas and Fruman to meet with Kolomoisky, but that meeting didn’t go well. In a scene worthy of a movie, this is how IK describes it going down:
But the meeting did not go according to plan. In an interview, Mr. Kolomoisky said the two men came “under the made-up pretext of dealing liquefied natural gas,” but as soon as it became clear that what they really wanted was a meeting between Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Zelensky, he abruptly sent them on their way. The exchange, he said, went like this:
“I say, ‘Did you see a sign on the door that says, ‘Meetings with Zelensky arranged here’?
“They said, ‘No.’
At this point, Rudy trashes Kolomoisky in the press and Zelensky as well. This is why Trump/Rudy put the squeeze hard on Zelensky. They didn’t trust him because he wasn’t responsively corrupt. An extortion plot would be needed to force Zelensky to do what they wanted.
Track 3 - The Poroshenko gov’t.
The NYT article’s big gap is regarding the deal or understanding that Trump/Rudy felt they had in place with the prior Poroshenko gov’t. Per the NYT,
Mr. Giuliani spoke with Ukrainian officials like Viktor Shokin, the former prosecutor general who suggested, falsely, that Mr. Biden had had him fired for looking into Burisma, as well as with Mr. Shokin’s successor, Yuriy Lutsenko. And he enlisted Ms. Toensing and Mr. diGenova, trusted colleagues since their days together in the Reagan Justice Department, to help interview and potentially represent anyone willing to come forward with dirt. Mr. Parnas acted as translator and fixer, crisscrossing the Atlantic with stops at the Manhattan cigar bar that was Mr. Giuliani’s hangout, a strip club in Kyiv and even a Hanukkah reception at the White House.
The campaign seemed to be paying off, with the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, poised to announce the investigations Mr. Giuliani sought, when the political situation changed. On April 21, Mr. Poroshenko was unseated by Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political novice, sending Mr. Giuliani scrambling to establish a conduit.
The NYT drops this in, but never explains why Poroshenko would announce a deal to investigate Biden given how bad that would be for Ukraine’s standing in Congress. Here’s what the NYT missed:
Feels like Rudy could get hit with a conspiracy against the US charge by trying to solicit personal favors in exchange for corrupting a DOJ prosecution (re: Firtash). Rudy’s single minded determination to recreate the Comey letter scenario of a bogus investigation announced under an official seal also seems to run afoul of the foreign corrupt practices act. Rudy is also trying to recreate a Steele Dossier scenario where US investigators find dirt on an opponent (except that Rudy is extorting foreign officials and bribing foreign nationals to provide that dirt). It also adds to violations of the federal election campaign act, bribery and extortion claims.
Trump has an open relationship with the Russian mob, and we’re seeing how Rudy worked those angles for him. Lev Parnas is unraveling the whole story. However, there are a few more angles to get evidence on: 1. The extortion plot against the Poroshenko regime which was predicated on obstructing the Mueller probe, and 2. The role of the Kremlin. Where are the specific touch points where Kremlin operatives assisted this plot to squeeze both Poroshenko and Zelensky.
So basically, Rudy thought the Petroshenko regime – avid opponents of the Russian-backed Kolomoisky, but otherwise pretty chill with corruption – was going to give him and Trump a bunch of fake dirt about Biden and Crowdstrike, but then the Kolomoisky-backed Zelensky won the election. So because Rudy was still working the Petroshenko angle, he figured that going after Kolomoisky as anti-Trumpers was the clear move, and he also attempted to monetize it. This was all a month or two before he figured out that Trump could just bribe Zelensky to do what the Petroshenko camp was going to do of their own volition. And presumably Zelensky is still going to give Kolomoisky whatever it is that he wants because Ukraine is still Chinatown.
ETA:
The ABA does not license or discipline attorneys. It is strictly a professional association.
I think Rudy’s gonna fry like a mosquito. Insurance or not.
In all fairness, Rudy needs the cash.
The poor man’s persistently on the edge of bankruptcy, just from the periodontal bills alone.
“How do I know Ukraine is corrupt?”
“Do you have any idea how much business I do there?”
A man who knows nothing of international law hired to be a lawyer in an international dispute.
A man who knows nothing of internet operations hired to be a cybersecurity expert.
Next thing I hear, Guiliani will be hired to run a 7-11.
It’s amazing the number of corrupt, corruptible, and/or desperate individuals and companies that turned down Rudy and Trump (Kolomoisky, Privatbank, Favorov, and others) or who took a wary approach and are distancing themselves since the vast year-long scheme became public (Zelensky) or who are now turning on them (Parnas).
Not that Rudy and Trump were and continue to be up to anything wrong, though.
And the Republicans in Congress and lickspittles in the administration continue to defend Trump a/k/a the chosen one a/k/a Individual 1. Funny who makes the decision to protect themselves and who goes all in to the deep end of the cesspool.
Or to run a marathon.
Once you’ve gone through dealing with parents with Alzheimer’s, you start to recognize the phenomenon we see with a bunch of the main actors here. They are still connected mentally to the memories of their careers, and have good recall of the principles and vocabulary of their training. However, they are at sea about what is going on now, and tie their expertise to increasingly erratic decision-making. And they know, in their prime, they could get a lot done. So Rudy brags about a level of work he hasn’t done in decades, because he would much rather go on TV and free associate, or make phone calls or travel and blow smoke at people, because it gives him the illusion of being in command again. Even he isn’t sure whether he is actually fooling anyone.
Rudy and Trump haven’t pulled all these stunts for fame or power or to stroke their egos. Money is most certainly at the root of all this, and the DOJ would do well to look at the world of natural gas distribution, Naftogaz specifically. It is a sure thing a MAJOR grift was being worked, and it was to benefit Rudy and Trump chiefly, with crumbs falling to all the underlings helping out.
What’s funny is, he’s been working for Trump for free because he wants to prevent alimony with his ongoing divorce. I do love how his current ex apparently ran off with his cable box and tv remotes
Pasting this from Marcy Wheeler, tracing the oranges of pompeo/giuliani communication, and noting an oversight in the NYT article. The gist is:
“There’s a very likely explanation for all this, one that would explain so much else about how State dealt with the campaign against Marie Yovanovitch: that Trump put that call through and told Pompeo he wanted the Secretary of State to take Rudy’s efforts seriously.”
