For those that don’t know him as the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani is widely recognized as a fervent supporter of Donald Trump P’00. Around the time of the 2016 election, he could be reliably found at Mr. Trump’s rallies, energetically urging Americans to vote for the infamous businessman. After Mr. Trump’s election, rumors suggested that Mr. Giuliani would be rewarded for his loyalty with a cabinet position like many other Trump supporters. Yet, these rumors never came to fruition. However, it was recently announced that Mr. Giuliani will be joining Mr. Trump’s legal defense team in response to Robert Mueller’s continuing Russia probe. While Mr. Giuliani has the legal, political, and bureaucratic competence to take on the position as a former mayor and federal prosecutor, his appointment to Mr. Trump’s team has still left people with more questions than answers.
Mr. Trump’s legal team, much like his cabinet, has seen a comical amount of departures and replacements. These were mostly brought on by disagreements on how to deal with the Russia probe. This infighting will only worsen with the introduction of Mr. Giuliani’s combative personality. The question many people have been asking is what exactly Mr. Giuliani brings to the team. Of course, he has plenty of experience in the courtroom, but this choice seems deliberate. After the office raid of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump needed more than just a good lawyer.
In reference to his joining Mr. Trump’s legal team to help with the Russia investigation, Mr. Giuliani said to the Washington Post, “I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country…” However, what Mr. Giuliani brings to the table could do Americans more harm than good. Days before the Federal Bureau of Investigations announced that they would be reopening the investigation into Secretary Hillary Clinton’s emails, Mr. Giuliani appeared on television boasting about his ties to the FBI and claiming that the public would soon be made aware of information that would dramatically hurt Ms. Clinton’s campaign. These actions insinuated that there is a leak in the FBI feeding information to Mr. Giuliani on ongoing investigations.
If this is true, it could be damaging to Americans for a number of reasons. First off, leaks from the FBI, no matter who they’re giving information to, are harmful to the security of the nation. In addition, if Mr. Giuliani is secretly receiving information from the FBI while being legally involved with the Russian investigation, that automatically destroys the credibility of the case. Not only will this damage public trust in the Justice Department and the FBI, but it will damage America’s reputation in the eyes of other countries. It is seen as nothing but a weakness when the leader of a country is fighting corruption charges with corruption.
Even if we give Mr. Giuliani the benefit of the doubt by assuming that he does not have someone in the FBI feeding him information, he is still a bad choice for Mr. Trump. In the short time that he’s worked as Mr. Trump’s lawyer, he has already made a number of comments that have only caused more trouble for his client. For example, Mr. Giuliani claimed that Mr. Trump paid Mr. Cohen back for the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, which contradicts what Mr. Trump previously said about having no knowledge of the payment. Mr. Giuliani is not good for Mr. Trump, and he definitely is not good for America. In fact, one of the only people who has something to gain from this arrangement is Mr. Giuliani himself.
