It would seem Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump's loose lipped consigliere Rudy "Ghouliani" Giuliani is getting the attention he craves so much, though not the kind he would prefer. He's already reportedly under criminal investigation, but he keeps digging that hole deeper and deeper.
Trump's staff wants Ghouliani to shut up:
The constant sniping from staff could ultimately force Trump to dump his long-valued fixer, as he has done with former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and countless other ousted officials, like ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Ghouliani, something of a narcissist himself, hasn't been able to stay away from a tv camera or microphone for more than a few days at a time. He won't self- gag. Thankfully.“Rudy Giuliani needs to stop talking,” said a former campaign official who remains close to Trump’s team.
Former U.S. Attorney Elie Honig sees Ghouliani boxed in:
“First, Rudy Giuliani working in the United States to further the interests of Ukraine, requirements are that he be registered as a foreign lobbyist — he is not,” Honig explained. “If he’s working for President Trump, he’s got problems too because we know the charges of the two other [Ukrainian] individuals, money was pouring in.”
“Either way, Rudy Giuliani’s got a legal problem,” he continued.This leads to a question to be resolved as this unravels: who's throwing who under the bus first?
“One really interesting thing is there have been people talking about President Trump throwing Rudy Giuliani under the bus. We could see at some point Rudy Giuliani throwing President Trump under the bus,” former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said.
“He said today he was acting with authority of the president of the United States. He is going to have an opportunity if he is charged to flip and tell what he knows. If it’s the president of the United States putting him up to these things, that could be a serious matter,” she explained.
Former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi said Giuliani had already thrown Trump under the bus in an attempt to defend himself against violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
“And as is usually the case when Rudy opens his mouth, he may have defended himself on a FARA charge but certainly threw Trump under the bus saying, ‘I was working at the direction of the president of the United States.’ That’s a problem,” Figliuzzi explained.Meanwhile, Trump and Ghouliani are circling each other warily:
Earlier on Friday, Trump wouldn't say whether Giuliani was still his personal attorney.
"Well, I don't know. I haven't spoken to Rudy. I spoke to him yesterday briefly. He's a very good attorney and he has been my attorney, yeah, sure," he said.
When asked later by CNN if he was still Trump's attorney, Giuliani responded, "Yes."
Can you represent him from under a bus? From jail?He added, "There are no Ukraine issues. I finished that in March. I'm still representing him."
This could get as messy for Trump as the Michael Cohen debacle, but with immediate consequences. We hope.