AG Barr warns Trump that Giuliani has become a serious liability for his administration: report

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, has been vigorously defending the president during the Ukraine scandal and the House impeachment inquiry. But Attorney General William Barr, according to a report by the Washington Post, is worried that the former New York City mayor has become a liability for Trump.

Four Post journalists are reporting that according to “multiple” sources, Barr has warned Trump during several recent conversations that “Giuliani has become a liability and a problem for the administration.”

Trump, however, has so far refused to distance himself from Giuliani despite the recent arrest of two of his associates — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — on suspicion of campaign finance violations. During an interview with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in November, Trump said of Giuliani, “He’s a good man, and he’s an honorable guy. And he’s a great crime fighter, corruption fighter.”

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a strident Trump defender, shares Barr’s concerns about Giuliani. The far-right Florida congressman has described Giuliani’s decision to recently visit Ukraine during the impeachment inquiry as “deeply weird.” And Trump donor Dan Eberhart has compared Giuliani’s Ukraine visit to a “murder suspect returning to the crime scene to live-stream themselves moon dancing. It’s brazen on a galactic level.”

“In the three years since Trump took office,” the Washington Post reports, “Giuliani has expanded his lucrative foreign consulting and legal practice, taking on clients that span the globe — from Turkey to Venezuela to Romania to Ukraine. Along the way, he also has used his singular perch to try to influence U.S. policy and criminal investigations — at times pushing the interests of foreign figures who could benefit him financially.”

According to journalist Andrew Kirtzman — author of the 2000 book, “Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City” — Giuliani has changed a lot since his days as New York City mayor. Now, Kirtzman asserts, Giuliani is much more materialistic.

“His values seemed to change,” Kirtzman told the Washington Post. “He was the least materialistic figure I’d ever covered back in his prosecutorial and mayoral days. His interest was always in power, not money. Then, he became a man who was very interested in money.”