Here’s why Giuliani may be 'seeking to cooperate' with Jack Smith: ex-federal prosecutor
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani once had a reputation for being a moderate northeastern Republican. The Giuliani of the 1990s was typically compared to Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, then-New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman and then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, not far-right culture warriors like the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr. and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina).
When Giuliani was a featured speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention, his speech was obviously designed to make President George W. Bush appear more moderate than he actually was.
But during Donald Trump's four years as president, there was nothing moderate about Giuliani — who wholeheartedly embraced the far-right MAGA movement, served as Trump's personal attorney, and abandoned any pretense of moderation. When Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to now-President Joe Biden, Giuliani falsely claimed the election was stolen from Trump and did everything he could to help him overturn the election results.
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At the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 6, 2021, Giuliani called for "trial by combat." Hours later, the U.S. Capitol Building was violently attacked by a mob of Trump supporters that included members of far-right groups like the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and QAnon.
In late June, Giuliani met with members of special counsel Jack Smith's team, which has been conducting two federal criminal investigations of Trump for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The Mar-a-Lago documents case has resulted in a 37-count criminal prosecution of Trump, and separately, Smith has been probing Trump's efforts to overturn 2020's election results.
Former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut, in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on June 30, lays out some reasons why Giuliani's meeting with Smith could be bad news for Trump.
"Here's why I think that Giuliani is indeed seeking to cooperate," Aftergut explains. "First, however nonsensical Giuliani's past thinking and public utterances have been, facing prosecution tends to focus the mind. Giuliani likely sees his freedom at risk because he was so central to Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election before January 6th…. Second, Giuliani probably figures that at this point, he owes Trump nothing…. Third, Giuliani and his lawyers surely feel the prosecutorial vise tightening on him."
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Trump's post-2020 election activities are not only being probed by Smith and DOJ — they are also the subjection of an investigation by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis. Many legal experts believe that Trump is likely to be indicted in Willis' case sometime later this summer, and Aftergut notes that Giuliani "is a target in Georgia."
"Boy, would he love Jack Smith's help brokering a global deal with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis," Aftergut argues. "To tempt prosecutors to make a deal, potential cooperators have every incentive to spill their guts…. Jack Smith's prosecutorial team is a freight train barreling down the tracks at full speed, with one destination in mind: Applying the law and the facts to the person or persons atop the chain of command on January 6th. Rudy would be smart to get out of the way."
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Read Dennis Aftergut's full article for The Bulwark at this link.
