Stormy Daniels‘ attorney Michael Avenatti slammed President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani for their remarks on the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) by mentioning a case from Giuliani’s U.S. Attorney days.
“Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani politicizing and attacking the conduct of the FBI and the DOJ without any legitimate basis is insulting to those that work there and dangerous to our nation,” he said. “Ask Giuliani what he thought of informants when it came time to sentence Mr. Boesky. #Basta”
What is the significance of the sentence of Mr. Boesky?
Avenatti is digging into the archives. In a story from 1987, Giuliani as U.S. Attorney is quoted after the sentencing of Wall Street’s Ivan Boesky for insider-trading.
Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison without a fine, but faced five years and a $250,000 fine. Giuliani commented that the lighter sentence was by design.
“[The sentence] amply satisfies both important policy goals: to deter white-collar crime and to encourage people to cooperate in revealing serious criminal activity,” he said.
Encouraging witness — “informant” — cooperation.
In case you missed it, Trump reacted this way to news of an FBI informant on the inside of the Trump campaign.
“Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI ‘SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT,'” he said on Thursday. “‘There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.’ If so, this is bigger than Watergate!”
“If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal. Only the release or review of documents that the House Intelligence Committee (also, Senate Judiciary) is asking for can give the conclusive answers. Drain the Swamp!” he tweeted Saturday.
CNN analyst and former FBI agent Asha Rangappa said that use of an FBI informant” suggests that the FBI may have been acting cautiously — perhaps too cautiously — to protect the campaign, not undermine it.”
Giuliani did not agree.
Giuliani made a demand of special counsel Robert Mueller to answer what the informant was for before Trump is interviewed otherwise he could be “walking into a trap.”
“What we intend to do is premise it on, ‘If you want an interview, we need an answer to this,’” he said Sunday.
[Image via Andrew Burton/Getty Images]
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