'Protect them': How SC’s honor-bound military college camouflaged its connection to Rudy Giuliani

The Honor Code of The Citadel, South Carolina’s 181-year-old military college, states that cadets “will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.”

But The Citadel now finds itself quietly tolerating one of its most recognizable honorary degree recipients — Rudy Giuliani — who, in the estimation of the U.S. House’s January 6 select committee, lied and cheated while attempting to steal the 2020 presidential election away from its duly elected winner, Joe Biden.

“Mr. Giuliani’s effort to undermine the integrity of the 2020 presidential election has helped destabilize our democracy,” a DC Bar Association panel wrote last month in recommending Giuliani, who served as former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, be disbarred. “The misconduct here sadly transcends all his past accomplishments.”

Those accomplishments include “leadership and inspiration to all Americans in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks” — the reasons The Citadel’s Board of Visitors cited in 2007 when awarding Giuliani an honorary doctorate in public administration.

These days, however, The Citadel officials don’t want to talk about Giuliani, his myriad troubles — including newfound status as "co-conspirator 1" in Trump's latest federal indictment — or the honorary The Citadel degree he continues to enjoy.

And in a series of internal The Citadel emails, which Raw Story obtained through a South Carolina Freedom of Information Act request, school officials detail how they decided to close ranks, protect themselves and deflect Giuliani-related scrutiny.

‘Domestic terrorist behavior’

Giuliani’s honorary degrees first caught my attention in early 2022 while working as deputy editor at Insider.

Three schools — the University of Rhode Island, Drexel University, Middlebury College — had recently stripped “America’s mayor” of honorary degrees.

Such actions are uncommon in academia, the rationales notably severe.

Upon Rhode Island University relieving Giuliani of his honorary degree, President Marc Parlange concluded that Giuliani had “encouraged domestic terrorist behavior”.

Giuliani aided “an insurrection against democracy itself,” Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton declared.

Drexel admonished Giuliani for “undermining the public’s faith in our democratic institutions and in the integrity of our judicial system”.

Given this, I asked then-Insider reporter Hanna Kang to contact five schools that had also bestowed honorary degrees on Giuliani — Georgetown University, Syracuse University, St. John Fisher University, Loyola University Maryland and The Citadel. See whether they, too, planned to take those honors back, I asked.

ALSO READ: Giuliani’s ‘donkey show’: How fake electors and coercion allegations may doom ‘America’s mayor’

With the possible exception of Syracuse University (full disclosure: my alma mater), the schools had made no formal moves to deep-six or otherwise alter the status of Giuliani’s honorary degrees. Nor did they have much, if anything, to say about Giuliani.

But of these five schools, The Citadel alone is a public institution. As such, it’s subject to something the others are not — public records laws.

So in May, while recently working with Raw Story investigative reporter Mark Alesia to determine whether the five schools had reconsidered their stances in light of new Giuliani-related developments, Raw Story filed a South Carolina Freedom of Information Act request with The Citadel for school records pertaining to Giuliani.

In late July, The Citadel released to Raw Story several hundred responsive documents.

Within the document dump were a series of emails sent among school officials, administrators and members of the Board of Visitors — a government-appointed body responsible for the “direction and supervision” of The Citadel — detailing their plans to stay mum on Giuliani’s honorary degree.

‘Protect them’

The Citadel Board of Visitors’ consists of up to 14 voting members who are elected to six-year terms by South Carolina’s General Assembly and governor.

The members of The Citadel Board of Visitors are “dedicated to the principles of duty, honesty, loyalty, integrity, and accountability,” according to its “Commitment to Excellent and Ethics” document.

And conferring honorary degrees ranks among the specific duties of The Citadel’s Board of Visitors.

But when faced with questions from Raw Story about the status of Giuliani’s degree, Board of Visitors remained silent.

School officials, for their parts, angled to “protect” the Board of Visitors, according to emails obtained through Raw Story’s South Carolina Freedom of Information Act request.

“We could decline to reply, like we have with Business Insider recently, or provide a modified version of what we first sent BI when they asked, which is: Honorary degree recipients are determined by the Board of Visitors, the college’s governing body. Here is a link to the announcement when the Board presented Giuliani with an honorary degree in 2007: https://www.citadel.edu/root/honorary_degrees,” The Citadel spokesman Zachary Watson wrote to Col. William R. “Sonny” Leggett, The Citadel’s vice president for communications and marketing, on May 17.

No to the latter, Leggett replied.

“I would just not respond- I wouldn’t put it on the BoV- we still need to protect them,” Leggett wrote Watson. “The worse they run is we failed to respond.”

Watson concurred: “Yep, that’s my preference too. Just wanted to pull options in case.”

Raw Story’s article, published on May 22, would go on to report: “The Citadel spokesman Zachary Watson acknowledged — but did not answer — Raw Story’s questions about the status of the honorary degree Rudy Giuliani received from the South Carolina military school in 2007.”

This was just the latest example of The Citadel dodging questions about Giuliani.

When Board of Visitors member Allison Dean Love received a Giuliani-related email from Insider in June 2022, she did not reply, but instead forwarded the message to Leggett, according to records obtained by Raw Story.

Similarly, Board of Visitors member Dylan Goff demurred.

“We will not be responding,” Goff wrote to Love and Leggett.

Leggett briefed The Citadel’s president, Glenn M. Walters, a retired general in the U.S. Marine Corps and school alumnus. He carbon copied three other top school officials.

“Business Insider has asked whether the school has any additional statement regarding the degree, we are directing them back to the original release- which notes Giuliani was also recognized as Time's Person of the year in 2001 and granted honorary knighthood in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II,” Leggett wrote Walters. “The reporter is now reaching out to BOV members seeking comment. We will send a message to the Board and encourage them to direct all queries to [the Office of Communication and Marketing].”

Leggett then issued marching orders.

“Business Insider is working on a piece regarding Rudy Giuliani's honorary degrees. The Citadel presented Giuliani with an honorary degree of Doctor of Public Administration in 2007 … Business Insider is seeking comment regarding the degree, we are directing them back to the original release. If contacted, please direct the reporter, Hanna Kang, back to [the Office of Communication and Marketing],” he wrote on June 17, 2022, in an email addressed to more than 30 recipients, including Board of Visitors members and top college officials.

After Insider published an article featuring The Citadel and Giuliani’s honorary degree, Leggett quarterbacked damage control.

“Thoughts? Should we tell the board,” Cardon B. Crawford, senior vice president of The Citadel and a retired Army colonel, wrote to Lori Hedstrom, executive assistant to the Board of Visitors.

“Yes I think COL Leggett should craft an email to the Board. I can send to them on his behalf. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Thank you,” Hedstrom wrote back.

Leggett also wrote Crawford.

“Since we are updating the board on Irizarry, we may wish to flag this for them as well,” Leggett wrote, referring to a former The Citadel cadet who had recently been sentenced to jail time for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Leggett continued: “The Citadel is mentioned in the piece as having awarded Giuliani an honorary degree and the opening image of Giuliani at The Citadel receiving said honor (below)… but no one from the staff or alums provided comments to the article. It’s business insider so it isn’t getting much attention, though they did @citadel1842 in their twitter posting.”

Kang, a most diligent reporter, kept trying to get answers.

But throughout 2022, The Citadel kept stonewalling her.

“FYSA in case Ms. Kang did not reach out to you all. I did not intend to respond of course,” Citadel Alumni Association Executive Director Tom McAlister wrote Leggett later that year after receiving an email from Kang.

“Thanks, we are not engaging with her either,” Leggett wrote back.

Is Giuliani a role model for cadets?

In late July, Raw Story asked The Citadel about these internal emails, posing questions to each member of The Citadel’s Board of Visitors and several top college officials, including Walters, the school president.

Among our questions:

• Is The Citadel's Board of Visitors currently reviewing the status of the honorary degree The Citadel granted Mr. Giuliani in 2007? If so, what has prompted such a review, and where does this process stand? If not, why not?
• To what degree is The Citadel concerned about Mr. Giuliani's role in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election?
• The Citadel's honor code states that cadets “will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.” Rudy Giuliani has been accused by various entities, including the U.S. House January 6 Select Committee and DC Bar Association, of lying and cheating in an attempt to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Does The Citadel believe that Rudy Giuliani has lied or cheated?
• Does The Citadel still consider Mr. Giuliani a role model for cadets?
• Why — per the emails Raw Story reviewed — did several of The Citadel's Board of Visitors decline to answer reporter questions about Mr. Giuliani's 2007 honorary degree after receiving inquiries from Insider and Raw Story?
• Why did The Citadel's communications staff in 2022 "encourage" Board of Visitors members to "direct all queries to OCM" regarding Mr. Giuliani?
• In a May 17 email between [vice president for communications and marketing] Col. Sonny Leggett and [college spokesman] Zach Watson, which is discussing a request for comment from Raw Story, Col. Leggett states: "I would just not respond- I wouldn’t put it on the BoV- we still need to protect them. The worse they run is we failed to respond." What, specifically, is The Citadel staff protecting the Board of Visitors from?

Four days passed after Raw Story sent the questions. None of the 20 officials responded.

On July 25, Raw Story followed up by phone and email to again ask them for their answers.

More silence.

Instead, Watson, the school spokesman, emailed Raw Story a two-sentence statement:

“The Citadel has never revoked an honorary degree and does not have a process to do so. Designated members of The Citadel’s Office of Communications and Marketing serve as spokespersons for the college and, therefore, often act as designees for media inquiries directed to members of the Administration or Board of Visitors.”

Watson did not respond to a follow-up question asking whether this statement represents the views of The Citadel’s administration, The Citadel’s Board of Visitors, or both.

Nor did he respond to later questions about Giuliani’s newly established status as “co-conspirator 1” in Trump’s newest federal indictment.

Representatives for Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment. In May, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman blasted the schools that had taken honorary degrees away from Giuliani.

"It'll be interesting to see who is behind these efforts to attack Mayor Giuliani and if anyone at these schools will inform these students about the basic principles of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and if they'll educate these students on the mayor's past as the man who took down the mafia, cleaned up New York and comforted the nation following 9/11," Goodman told Raw Story. "Frankly, we weren't even aware of those decisions, and it's just disappointing, and it says more about the culture of these institutions than anything else."

‘When you know better, do better’

A 2019 The Citadel memorandum concerning honorary degrees states that there should be a “compelling reason why it would be particularly fitting for The Citadel to honor the nominee, in the form of a clear link between the nominee’s achievements and The Citadel’s mission and its core values.”

The memorandum doesn’t detail a formal process for revoking an honorary degree that’s already been awarded.

It also doesn’t expressly state the Board of Visitors cannot take an honorary degree back. Under the heading “compliance,” the memorandum states: “Failure to comply with this policy may prevent a deserving individual from receiving appropriate recognition from The Citadel.”

With this as backdrop, Raw Story asked three lawmakers with direct ties to The Citadel about what the school’s Board of Visitors should do with Giuliani’s honorary degree.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who in 1999 became the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel, dismissed the notion of her alma mater rescinding Giuliani’s degree.

ALSO READ: Inside Trump’s six-person team of alleged co-conspirators and their effort to overturn Election 2020

“I’m not a big fan of cancel culture. Giuliani 20 years ago is different than the Giuliani today,” she told Raw Story correspondent Matt Laslo during an interview at the U.S. Capitol. “Everyone, including colleges, has a 1st Amendment right to do things like that. And I don’t think that any college should be discredited for that sort of thing.”

Mace noted that the “world changed” on Sept. 11, 2001, and Giuliani, as mayor of New York, provided rare and essential leadership in the midst of an unthinkable crisis.

“It was a very historic moment. And I actually think it’s kind of gross to take that away from someone,” Mace said. “This whole cancel thing — people got to grow the f— … just grow up. You know what, just grow up. Move on and look forward. Because it’s very divisive. It’s very divisive for our country.”

Even with Giuliani facing a host of legal and ethical problems?

“What’s he been convicted of? That’s the problem,” Mace said. “And if you believe in the Constitution and due process, and the law, then people are innocent until proven guilty. Even if you don’t like him personally, that’s the way it works.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the U.S. House's assistant Democratic leader whose Charleston-area congressional district includes The Citadel, is more dubious.

“He’s embarrassed himself so much,” Clyburn said of Giuliani in a brief interview with Raw Story. “The school, I don’t think, would want to be embarrassed by him. So, it’s up to them.”

The Citadel’s elected representative in the South Carolina House of Representatives went further.

“When I think about the ongoing revelations of the behavior and statements of Rudy Giuliani, I am reminded of the old Southern adage that ‘the chickens always come home to roost’,” said state Rep. Wendell Gilliard (D-SC). “There is nothing that surprises me about him anymore and, frankly, the less said about him, the better.”

As it pertains to The Citadel, Gilliard said, “I am more apt to think of the wisdom in Maya Angelou’s words, ‘do the best that you can with what you know, and when you know better, do better’. So, I am more interested in what those that run The Citadel will do with all the things that have been revealed about Giuliani.”

The Citadel's Honor Code, for its part, advocates "doing the right thing when no one is watching," and also, to “do the right thing when everyone is watching".

Matt Laslo contributed to this report.