After it was reported that President Donald Trump’s lawyer attorney Rudy Giuliani was parting ways with a personal attorney representing him in impeachment matters (after just two weeks), friends of Giuliani reportedly voiced their concerns about Giuliani “resisting” hiring a criminal defense attorney. As we know, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) have charged Giuliani’s Ukrainian-Floridian clients Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas for alleged campaign finance violations; Giuliani is now a subject of the investigation.
As Giuliani says he won’t comply with a subpoena issued by House Democrats pursuant to their impeachment inquiry — “If they enforce it, we’ll see what happens,” he said — CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz cited friends and people close to Giuliani who are “concerned” that Giuliani isn’t taking the SDNY probe more seriously.
“His current lawyer, who he hired to represent through the congressional process, through this impeachment process, is no longer going to representing him. That lawyer Jon Sale, says they’re done. He did what Rudy asked him to do and Rudy says he’s now done with this lawyer,” Prokupecz began. “The big news from what we’re hearing is from people close to Rudy Giuliani is that they are very concerned about Rudy. They are concerned there is something serious going on here out of the Southern District of New York.”
“You have this FBI investigation and they’re urging him, his friends, people close to him. I spoke to someone just moments ago, all [are] urging him he needs to hire a criminal attorney,” Prokupecz continued. “They’re worried. They think that once the Southern District of New York certainly starts to focus on you and investigating you for financial potential — some kind of financial wrongdoing — they’re concerned that he could be in a lot of trouble and they are all advising him to hire a criminal attorney.”
“We’re told right now he’s resisting it, he’s confident that he’s gonna be okay. But his friends certainly are very, very worried and people close him all urging him to hire a lawyer — a criminal lawyer specifically right now,” he said.
Legal analysts are saying such resistance is “reckless,” given the situation and given Giuliani’s continued public statements about it.
CNN is not the only outlet reporting that Giuliani doesn’t think he needs to lawyer up. Per Politico:
Sources familiar with Giuliani’s situation said the former New York mayor doesn’t think he needs to tap a new lawyer for any potential criminal case. But a back-channel effort is nonetheless underway to try to line him up with new counsel. Among the names floated include Marc Mukasey, though the former Giuliani law partner has his own conflict representing the president and his namesake Trump Organization.
Some have suggested that money might be a factor in Giuliani’s decision-making.
[Image via Fox News screengrab]