by Lev Parnas
MeidasTouch
Jul 24, 2023
Former Donald Trump / Rudy Giuliani Associate Lev Parnas discusses Rudy Giuliani’s false claims about Hunter Biden’s business in Ukraine and the fake narrative that Joe Biden coordinated the ousting of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in order to protect his son. Parnas also exposes some of Giuliani’s personal relationships with individuals later revealed to be active Russian Intelligence Agents.
Transcript
Hey everybody. My name is Lev Parnas.
For those of you that don't know me, I was part of Donald Trump's inner circle and Trump's Maga cult. Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani sent me to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden. Now that I'm out of the cult, and finishing up my sentence of home confinement, I'd like to share some some stories that I have written up in my diary while I was here on home confinement.
Now this week it was reported that Rudy Giuliani did invent information that he pushed to overturn the 2020 election. Now as crazy as it might sound to you, to me it was Rudy just being Rudy. It wasn't about finding out the real information, or the truth about what was really going on. It was all about getting Trump back in office. And today I'm going to tell you a little bit how it coincided with all the stuff that's transpired in Ukraine, because it was similar to the same thing that happened in the 2020 election.
It was getting information and pushing it through any means possible, through his cohorts in Congress.
Back then it was Devin Nunez. Today it's Senator Johnson,
James Comer,
Marjorie Greene,
Lauren Boebert, and the rest of the crazy Congress people that we have that are pushing all these misinformation just to confuse the public.
So where do we begin? in November of 2018, I was approached by Rudy Giuliani, and asked if I could vet some information that he got regarding Joe and Hunter Biden, and if I could use my contacts in Ukraine to find out if they were true. Obviously, being in the Maga cult, I was drinking the Kool-Aid, and I decided, and I was happy, to accept that invitation. I thought I was going to be a hero, and I was going to help save the our democracy from the deep State. Boy was I wrong!
So anyway, going forward, in December, I met up with Trump and Giuliani at the White House, where Giuliani told Trump about everything about a video that he saw where Joe Biden basically came out and said to the prosecutor Viktor Shokin that if he doesn't get fired, they're not gonna, Ukraine won't get a billion dollars in aid.
Fact check: Biden leveraged $1B in aid to Ukraine to oust corrupt prosecutor, not to help his son
by Camille Caldera
USA Today
Published 5:25 p.m. ET Oct. 21, 2020
He [Giuliani] thought that he had the Smoking Gun at the time, and he wanted to find Viktor Shokin. He wanted to get to the bottom of it. He wanted to find Victor Shokin, and I was the guy that was going to go and do that for him.
We went to the White House where he updated Trump. Trump came out, patted me on the back, gave me a thumbs up, and told me, "Rudy says good things about you, Lev. Continue doing the good work that you're doing."
I was impressed. I was mystified. I mean, here the president of the United States is telling me that I'm doing good work, and I'm, you know, for a kid out of Brooklyn that never expected to be in the White House, here I am speaking to the President of the United States, and being sent on a mission from him and his attorney Rudy Giuliani to help save our democracy, which I thought at that time. Boy was I wrong about that!
My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump's campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump's interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.
-- Lev Parnas Diary
So I traveled to Ukraine in 2018 in December to find Viktor Shokin. After meeting various characters, I eventually located Shokin, and had to go through a two-hour drive in the middle of nowhere to meet with Viktor. When we sat down, at first, Viktor Shokin was an interesting character. He didn't care too much about what was going on in the United States, and didn't care too much about Rudy Giuliani, or Trump. All he cared about was getting back into power, and getting reinstated to become Attorney General of Ukraine -- Prosecutor General, excuse me.
Trump acted on his hatred of Ukraine as he tried to improve his re-election chances in 2020. The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple. Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that the Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden. It was also my job to convince the new Ukrainian government to announce an official investigation into Hunter Biden. If they didn't, the U.S. would not send Trump or Vice President Mike Pence to Zelensky's inauguration, threatening Zelensky's domestic stature and his ability to stand up to Putin. Trump also paused much needed military aid for Ukraine while he tried to get Zelensky to open the Biden investigation.
-- Lev Parnas Diary
I relayed a message to him telling him that Giuliani says that we could help. We could help if you help us. And we need information on Joe and Hunter Biden.
At first, Shokin was a little bit skeptical about getting involved, but eventually he said he would love to come to the United States and meet with Giuliani, and talk about it. Giuliani prepared a visit for him, which got derailed by Maria Yovanovitch, the U.S ambassador to Ukraine. He [Giuliani] told Shokin to get a Visa. "Tell them at the Visa office that you're going to Los Angeles to visit your daughter. Don't tell them that you're going to Washington DC to meet up with Lindsey Graham and myself."
Well, that didn't go well. When he went to the Visa office, he got declined.
After several conversations, and Giuliani pressuring the State Department, even going to Trump himself, sending me text messages to reply back to Shokin that everything would be well, he never was able to get him the Visa.
The fired prosecutor at the center of the Ukraine controversy said during a private interview with President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani earlier this year that he was told to back off an investigation involving a natural gas firm that was linked to Joe Biden's son, according to details of that interview that were handed over to Congress by the State Department's Inspector general Wednesday.
Fox News obtained a copy of Giuliani's notes from his January 2019 interview with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in which he claimed that his "investigations stopped out of fear of the United States."
"Mr. Shokin attempted to continue the investigations but on or around June or July of 2015, the U.S. Ambassador Geofrrey R. Pyatt told him that the investigation has to be handled with white gloves, which according to Mr. Shokin, that implied do nothing," the [hidden words] stated. The notes also claimed Shokin was told Biden had held ...
We were able to do a 45 minute video with him at some point in January of 2019, where Shokin basically pushed the narrative that Joe Biden got him fired because of withholding the billion dollar aid. But one interesting part in that video, in the interview, was when Rudy asked Shokin directly, "What laws, or what criminality, did Joe or Hunter Biden do?" Shokin couldn't respond. Because there was no rules that were broken. There were no laws being broken. And that was a narrative that started then, and continued to this day today.
After that, we went with the Yuriy Lutsenko, who was another prosecutor, the current prosecutor of Ukraine. Lutsenko -- all he wanted to do was meet attorney general Barr. But to me, Rudy Giuliani wanted information, information that Lutsenko didn't have. Because there was no concrete evidence of any wrongdoing by Joe and Hunter Biden.
But Rudy Giuliani pushed. He didn't care if there was facts involved. He didn't care if there was evidence. He cared that the narrative, that the information that the prosecutors gave him, fit his narrative.
At some point there was lots of arguments going back and forth with Shokin. Lutsenko would make statements, retract statements, give information, but that didn't bother Rudy. With no facts involved, he used people like John Solomon, Fox news reporter Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Senator Ron Johnson, Devin Nunez, and pushed that information into the halls of Congress, and into the media for the public to hear, with no facts behind it whatsoever.
Rudy knew there was no facts, but it was all about getting Trump back in office. De didn't care if there was truth behind it. All he cared about was that he could bring up enough "what if" and bring enough confusion so the American public would get confused enough to be able to get Trump back in office.
Today Rudy Giuliani, because of all of that, is facing some problems. I mean, he's currently looking to probably get disbarred. He's probably going to get indicted in the election fraud case. And he's being sued by lots of people, you know, one of them being Noelle Dunphy for sexual assault. And I was part of a lot of those meetings, and heard a lot of things that went on.
I spent a lot of time with Rudy Giuliani. He's not the Rudy Giuliani that we're used to knowing, or reading about, or hearing in the past. He's not the Rudy Giuliani that was named America's mayor. He's a different Rudy Giuliani that sold his soul to Trump. Basically, sold his soul to the Trump cult, and basically is now doing whatever it takes: lying, sending misinformation, without proof, just to be able to get his cult leader Trump back in office.
So let's talk about some facts. You know, I mentioned some of the facts as far as what happened with the 2020 election. Now let's go into some of the people Rudy Giuliani dealt with, just so you understand as far as getting information from Ukraine.
The European Union has welcomed the dismissal of Ukraine's scandal ridden prosecutor general and called for a crackdown on corruption, even as the country's political crisis deepened over efforts to form a new ruling coalition and appoint a new prime minister. Ukraine's parliament voted overwhelmingly to fire Viktor Shokin, ridding the beleaguered prosecutor's office of a figure who is accused of blocking major cases against allies and influential figures and stymying moves to root out graft. "This decision creates an opportunity to make a fresh start in the prosecutor general's office. I hope that the new prosecutor general will ensure that [his] office ... becomes independent from political influence and pressure and enjoys public trust," said Jan Tombinski, the EU's envoy to Ukraine. There is still a lack of tangible results of investigations into serious cases ... as well as investigations of [hidden] prosecutor general's office," he added.
Viktor Shokin was a corrupt prosecutor, and not only Biden wanted him out, the whole West wanted him out. IMF wanted him out. Western leaders wanted him out. Not because he was making investigations, but because he wasn't investigating. And that's a clear fact. He was not investigating Burisma when Rudy Giuliani saw the video of Joe Biden saying, "get rid of Viktor shokin, or we're not going to give you a billion dollars." The reason why Biden made that statement was because the United States, the IMF, and the Western leaders, were pushing for reform in Ukraine. They were trying to do away with corruption, and Shokin, was one of the corrupt prosecutors at the time.
EU hails sacking of Ukraine's prosecutor Viktor Shokin
Political crisis continues as deals on a new coalition and premier prove elusive
by Daniel McLaughlin in Kiev
The Irish Times
Tue Mar 29 2016 - 18:41
Then comes Yuri Lutsenko. Yuri Lutsenko, who all he wanted to do was meet attorney general Barr, and to be able to discuss with him criminal activities that were going on between Ukrainian and American citizens. Rudy didn't care about that. All Rudy wanted to hear was, "Get me some dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden."
Lutsenko, because of his own political ambitions, and because he was worried about getting ousted if Petro Poroshenko was to lose the election, which he eventually did to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tried to play ball. But it was never good enough for Giuliani, because he would never come out and announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden.
But that didn't stop Rudy from pushing the agenda. It didn't stop Rudy from pushing the misinformation campaign. It didn't stop John Solomon, and Fox, and Ron Johnson, and Devin Nunez, to go up in front of the American public and talk about bits and pieces of information without facts backing it up.
But then later, when Rudy Giuliani needed really seriously corrupt individuals that would be able to go to any extreme to help him, that's when enters Andriy Telizhenko, and Andriy Derkach.
So let's talk about who these people are. Andriy Telizhenko, he was sanctioned by the U.S treasury for being part of a Russian linked foreign influence network.
That's right folks. He was sanctioned by the Trump Administration for being part of a Russian linked foreign influence network.
So just understand who the information was coming from.
Now let's take a look at Andriy Derkach. Andriy Derkach was a member of parliament who the Trump Administration accused of an active Russian agent over a decade.
His father was an ex KGB agent. Let's repeat myself: he was an active Russian agent for over a decade.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned seven current and former Ukrainian officials who tried to tip the U.S. presidential election for the outgoing President Donald Trump.
All seven are part of a Russianlinked foreign influence network associated with lawmaker Andrii Derkach. The group used dubious allegations to try to start an investigation against Biden and his son Hunter to hut Biden's chances of winning the election.
"Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.
On May 19, Derkach leaked recordings of what he claimed were conversations between Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Derkach claimed this proves that in 2016, Biden forced Ukraine to fire then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to help Ukrainian oil company Burisma Holdings escape corruption prosecution.
[HIDDEN] which has been debunked multiple times. In December 2019, Trump ...
The Trump Administration sanctioned Derkach on the grounds that he was an active Russian agent for over a decade, who had waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives to influence the 2020 elections.
PRESS RELEASE
Active Russian Agent Andrii Derkach Indicted for Scheme to Violate Sanctions in the United States
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs
Derkach was Added to OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals in 2020 After Waging a Covert Influence Campaign to Undermine the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
A seven-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Andrii Derkach, 55, of Ukraine, with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Acts (IEEPA), bank fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and four counts of money laundering in connection with the purchase and maintenance of two condominiums in Beverly Hills, California. Derkach allegedly concealed his interest in the transactions and violated sanctions imposed in 2020. Derkach remains at large. The charges and forfeiture action announced today include the first use of criminal and forfeiture powers targeting the concealment of ownership by senior foreign political officials, passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021.
“The conduct of this Kremlin asset, who was sanctioned for trying to poison our democracy, has shown he is ready, willing and capable of exploiting our banking system in order to advance his illicit goals,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “The U.S. will not be a safe haven where criminals, oligarchs or sanctioned entities can hide their ill-gotten gains or influence our elections. This office, together with our law enforcement partners, will use every tool available to prosecute those who evade sanctions and abuse the U.S. financial system, and we will identify, freeze and seize criminal proceeds whenever and wherever possible.”
“Kremlin-backed Ukrainian politician and oligarch, Andrii Derkach, was sanctioned for his efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election on behalf of the Russian Intelligence Services,” said Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Field Office. “While participating in a scripted Russian disinformation campaign seeking to undermine U.S. institutions, Derkach simultaneously conspired to fraudulently benefit from a Western lifestyle for himself and his family in the United States. The FBI will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to identify Russian intelligence operations, disrupt Russian information laundering networks and bring to justice those who seek to engage in criminal conspiracies to undermine the integrity of U.S elections and evade U.S. sanctions.”
“Attempting to enjoy the safety, security and freedoms of an open society, while secretly working to undermine that very society, is a hypocrisy that runs through every sanctions charge announced by the Task Force,” said Task Force KleptoCapture Director Andrew C. Adams. “It is a particularly egregious hypocrisy in the case of Andrii Derkach – sanctioned for attempts to undermine American democracy, while corruptly seeking to benefit from its protections.”
According to the indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York, on or about Sept. 10, 2020, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Derkach for his efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. According to information publicly released by OFAC, Derkach was “an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services,” who “waged a covert influence campaign” to undermine the 2020 Presidential election. As alleged, beginning in at least 2013 and continuing after Derkach’s OFAC designation, Derkach and a co-consiprator (CC-1) devised a scheme to purchase two luxury condominiums in Beverly Hills, California, (the Subject Condominiums) while concealing Derkach’s interest in the transactions from U.S. financial institutions. The scheme utilized a U.S.-based financial services professional (the Nominee). The Nominee assisted Derkach and CC-l in setting up and managing several corporate entities designed to hide Derkach’s ownership interest in the Subject Condominiums and related financial holdings. The Nominee understood that Derkach and CC-1 would occupy one of the Subject Condominiums, and the other would be used by Derkach’s children.
At the direction of Derkach and CC-1, the Nominee established two corporate entities in California. As part of the scheme, Derkach and CC-l misrepresented details about Derkach’s identity to the Nominee. Derkach and CC-l caused the Nominee to falsely represent ownership of funds and bank accounts to U.S. financial institutions, thereby deceiving those institutions into processing transactions related to, involving and on behalf of Derkach and his blocked property.
At all times relevant to this indictment, and since the date of his OFAC designation, Derkach has been aware of and actively working to evade the OFAC sanctions placed upon him. As alleged, on or about Sept. 10, 2020, the day that OFAC designated Derkach, Derkach posted a response on Facebook, stating the “decision was drawn up on a piece of paper by several congressman of [a U.S. political party] and inspired by representatives of the State Department.”
Moreover, in the years and months preceding his designation, the defendant spent significant time in the United States, including at the Subject Condominiums. In conducting that travel to, and spending time in, the United States, Derkach was actively involved in deceiving U.S. law enforcement and border authorities even prior to his SDN designation. For example, in December 2019 and February 2020, Derkach was in the United States to meet with U.S. persons and conduct media appearances. To obtain a U.S. visa, and to ostensibly attend meetings and conferences related to human rights issues in Ukraine, Derkach retained the services of a U.S.-based consulting firm (Firm-1). The written contract purported to be between Firm-l and a Ukrainian shipping company and did not refer to Derkach, notwithstanding Derkach’s direct involvement in the provision of services that the contract purported to reflect. In or about and between July 2018 and December 2018, Derkach paid Firm-l approximately $100,000. In a July 2018 email communication with Firm-l, Derkach’s representative expressed concern that, “given the fact that my client [Derkach] is a politically exposed person, as well as the statements he made concerning Ukraine’s interference into U.S. elections and the insider information we have in our possession,” the visa application process could be potentially complicated for Derkach.
Derkach, through the Nominee, continued to conduct U.S. financial transactions in support of his real estate holdings even after Sept. 10, 2020, the day that OFAC designated the defendant Derkach and added him to the SDN List. Because Derkach and CC-l had obscured details about Derkach’s identity and involvement from relevant financial institutions, Derkach and CC-1 succeeded for a time in conducting financial transactions valued at several hundred thousands of dollars in violation of OFAC’s sanctions.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum of 30 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Concurrent with today’s announcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has filed and announced a civil forfeiture suit naming the Subject Condominiums and two financial accounts as defendants in rem, seeking forfeiture of those properties on the basis of their involvement in, and status as proceeds of, criminal violations of the federal money laundering laws, the IEEPA, and federal law criminalizing the concealment of assets of senior foreign political figures.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York, Task Force KleptoCapture Director Andrew C. Adams and Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Field Office made the announcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Artie McConnell and Jonathan E. Algor for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Trial Attorney Adam Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney Madeline O’Connor for the Eastern District of New York is handling the forfeiture matters. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance.
The investigation was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export controls, and economic countermeasures that the United States, along with its foreign allies and partners, has imposed in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. Announced by the Attorney General on March 2 under the leadership of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the task force will continue to leverage all of the Department’s tools and authorities to combat efforts to evade or undermine the collective actions taken by the U.S. government in response to Russian military aggression.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Updated December 7, 2022
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. charged Derkach with seven counts of money laundering, bank fraud, and sanctioned evasion charges. Ukraine intelligence ordered Derkach detained on charges that he was paid half a million dollars from Russian intelligence to use a private security company to assist the Russian invasion of Ukraine. he currently remains a fugitive both in the Ukraine and the U.S.
So U.S attorney Michael J. Driscoll said in the press release: “While participating in a scripted Russian disinformation campaign seeking to undermine U.S. institutions, Derkach simultaneously conspired to fraudulently benefit from a Western lifestyle for himself and his family in the United States."
So these are the people that dealt with Rudy Giuliani. He knew who they were. He understood that the information was coming as part of a Russian campaign, but he didn't care. All he cared about was confusing the American public, sending disinformation out because, like I said before, it was all about getting Trump back in office.
How Rudy Giuliani, once a national hero, ruined his own reputation
by Devlin Barrett
Washington Post
September 16, 2022
Rudy Giuliani, pictured at the White House in 2018, was an ally of Donald Trump long before Trump won the presidency. His peddling of false claims on Trump’s behalf helped erode his image as “America’s Mayor.” (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
What in the world happened to Rudy Giuliani? How did the man whose bravery and resilience reassured a nation during the 2001 terrorist attacks become a bellowing, cheek-stained geyser of nonsense?
Andrew Kirtzman sets out to answer that question in “Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor.” Kirtzman is well-suited to the task; as a New York-based reporter he covered Giuliani for years and was alongside the mayor on 9/11 as he sought to rally a devastated country.
Giuliani’s image as a national hero was set in stone that day, but the former mayor, prosecutor and presidential candidate has spent the years since chipping away at the pedestal on which he stands, largely through truth-twisting diatribes in defense of Donald Trump. Kirtzman’s biography attempts to explain how a man who nobly defended the country in one of its darkest moments then devoted his twilight years to sabotaging it.
It’s a measure of how much Giuliani’s place in history has changed that this is Kirtzman’s second biography of him. The author argues that it’s not so much that Giuliani changed as age, alcohol and a thirst for attention gradually led his worst impulses to dominate his life. Giuliani’s self-confidence, Kirtzman writes, “drove his greatest crusades, from his mission to eradicate the mob, to his determination to clean up New York City. . . . But the almost fanatical sense of righteousness that propelled his rise also presaged his catastrophic fall.”
It can be difficult in 2022 to recall Giuliani’s remarkable early career, when he became mayor of a city that many considered in 1994 not just dangerous and dirty, but out of control and fundamentally unmanageable.
Giuliani hurled his obsessive, combative and vindictive spirit into taming New York. Crime plummeted, corporate profits soared, and three-card monte dealers in Times Square gave way to Disney characters.
As mayor, he found an ally in Trump the real estate developer, but their relationship went far beyond any zoning regulation or fundraiser; the two men were in some ways kindred spirits, people whose careers were boosted and shaped by New York’s unique tabloid news culture. Rudy and the Donald thrived in a public discourse dominated by personal feuds and peccadillos.
After 9/11, the respect and admiration for Giuliani swelled so high, people often burst into spontaneous applause when they saw him in public. That public love translated into tremendous wealth and political influence, and Kirtzman details the years in which Giuliani cashed in with a global business brand.
In 2007, “America’s Mayor” sought to trade the imaginary title for a real one by running for president. Starting with the best name recognition and donor pool in the GOP, Giuliani burned through both in record time, exiting the race in an Orlando hotel ballroom, having amassed a grand total of one convention delegate.
Giuliani spent the post-election period in a deep funk and, to hear his ex-wife Judith Nathan tell it, drinking too much. Giuliani and Nathan holed up at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, using the complex’s tunnels to stay out of public view.
At times the book seems more interested in Giuliani’s troubled marriage than his estranged relationship with reality, but “the ex-wife made him do it” defense offered by some of Giuliani’s former advisers feels like a too-convenient excuse, since after the divorce he became even more closely tied to Trump.
“What’s clear is that the two men’s friendship survived when a hundred other Trump relationships died away like so many marriages of convenience,” Kirtzman writes. “Giuliani would never turn his back on Trump, much to his detriment.”
After the failed presidential bid, Giuliani’s legal and consulting career withered, as his increasingly strident political commentary turned off law partners. During the 2016 campaign, Giuliani rediscovered his public voice as a pro-Trump attack dog, going on Fox News to accuse Hillary Clinton of all manner of crimes and illness.
It was a testament to the collective memory of Giuliani as a hero in a crisis that the nonsensical accusations he made that year did little to dent his reputation. Even Kirtzman, in his deconstruction of the former mayor, seems to credit Giuliani’s claims to have sources inside the FBI in 2016 telling him about the Clinton investigations. When federal agents questioned Giuliani in 2018 about that — an interview in which lying could lead to criminal charges — he admitted he didn’t have any inside information.
In that interview, Giuliani conceded what should have long been obvious to the outside world: that he had made wild claims based on little to no evidence, on the belief that false accusations are an acceptable part of politics.
“You could throw a fake,” he told the agents.
Trump’s 2016 victory gave Giuliani sway with the most important person on the planet: the president of the United States. The same spaghetti-on-the-wall strategy Giuliani had deployed against Clinton he now aimed in the general direction of the Biden family, trying to build a case of corruption out of Ukraine, where Joe Biden’s son Hunter had business interests. Rather than get his client Trump reelected, Giuliani helped get him impeached.
And still, people believed.
In Tampa, 38-year-old crane operator Paul Hodgkins watched a televised news conference in late 2020 in which Giuliani claimed the election had been stolen from Trump. As Giuliani spoke, what appeared to be dark hair dye oozed down the side of his face. Hodgkins thought Giuliani was not someone who would make something up or “chase fairy tales.”
By then, Giuliani had been publicly chasing fairies and goblins for the better part of four years. But Hodgkins still believed in America’s Mayor, so he went to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, took part in the pro-Trump riot and was sent to jail.
Kirtzman’s Giuliani is a tragic figure, one whose lack of fear spelled doom as he aged. Giuliani is now 78. The president is 79, the House speaker is 82, and Trump is 76. As our country’s leadership ages in place, the house of government may need more handrails.
What happened to Rudy Giuliani? The more pressing question posed by Kirtzman’s book is what happened to us, that it took so long to see it.
Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department for The Washington Post and is the author of “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election.” He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting, for coverage of Russian interference in the U.S. election.
Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of "October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election." He was part of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he was a co-finalist for the Pulitzer for Feature Writing and the Pulitzer for International Reporting.
I want everybody to understand where we stand. Rudy Giuliani is not America's mayor. Rudy Giuliani is not somebody that is to be trusted. Rudy Giuliani is somebody that's about to get disbarred, someone that's about to get indicted, because of his lies and his misinformation that he pushed onto the American public without any proof to back up his claims. And all of that was done for Donald J Trump, to get him back in office, to keep him in office, to be able to keep his leader in office.
Disciplinary panel calls for Rudy Giuliani's disbarment
His ultimate disbarment or other penalty would be decided by the D.C. Court of Appeals.
by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein
Politico
07/07/2023 02:16 PM EDT
Updated: 07/07/2023 02:39 PM EDT
A Washington-D.C.-based bar discipline committee concluded Friday that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred for "frivolous" and "destructive" efforts to derail the 2020 presidential election in support of former President Donald Trump.
"He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it," the three-member panel declared in a 38-page decision. "By prosecuting that destructive case Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the Court, forfeited his right to practice law."
The D.C. disciplinary panel contended that Giuliani's efforts to aid Trump's bid to subvert the 2020 election overshadowed the renowned prosecutor and mayor's prior record.
"The misconduct here sadly transcends all his past accomplishments," they concluded. "It was unparalleled in its destructive purpose and effect. He sought to disrupt a presidential election and persists in his refusal to acknowledge the wrong he has done."
So there you have it. That's what happened.
Thank you everyone for watching. Please make sure to subscribe to MeidasTouch Network. I'll be sharing more stories in the near future from my diaries, from my home confinement. And I'll see you soon.
