BREAKING: Giuliani implies the remaining $1.1 million Cohen mysteriously accrued—from Trump and loans—in the last 90 days of the campaign may well have gone to other Trump mistresses. If it'd only been Daniels and McDougal, you'd have expected Rudy to know that as Trump's lawyer.
2/ It's extraordinary for a man's lawyer to not be able to say how many women his client used a fixer to pay off to avoid disclosure of extramarital affairs in the run-up to a national election—Giuliani should've had this info via Trump already and been prepared for the question.
3/ There are only 3 acceptable answers to George's question, for a criminal attorney:
(1) No comment.
(2) There were no other payments or women.
(3) There were other payments and women and I'll now disclose those to you.
"Eh, sure, possibly, maybe? I don't know"—not an option.
(1) No comment.
(2) There were no other payments or women.
(3) There were other payments and women and I'll now disclose those to you.
"Eh, sure, possibly, maybe? I don't know"—not an option.
4/ The job of a criminal defense attorney is to get every piece of information he can from a client—including, indeed *particularly*, the bad stuff—so he can advise his client and strategize how to answer questions. This answer means Rudy thinks he *doesn't* have the whole story.
5/ In FIRE AND FURY, Bannon suggests Cohen paid off *over 100* women. A real attorney would discuss that with Trump and come up with one of two strategies: no comment on any of it or full disclosure. Giuliani is choosing to be lied to and the result are these terrible interviews.
6/ By saying "I have no knowledge [of other women and/or payoffs]" but allowing that such women and/or payoffs may exist, Giuliani is effectively breaching attorney-client privilege—his reply reveals what his client told him *and* leaves open the possibility his client is a liar.
7/ Trump is the worst client I've ever seen any lawyer represent. He violates the cardinal rule of having an attorney with *every single breath*—"tell your attorney the truth so he can help you." If you're Rudy, you *refuse* to represent Trump unless/until he meets that standard.
8/ By comparison, a *mob attorney* knows his client is engaged in *ongoing criminality* and has *no plans to stop*—so his policy has to be "don't tell me anything." But in *that* case, you also have to refuse to do interviews. Rudy is selling out his client in every possible way.
9/ Rudy has confirmed for us that he thinks it's possible Trump is lying to him—even though he and Trump have attorney-client privilege. There are very few reasons to lie to your attorney: 1) you don't trust him; 2) you are engaged in ongoing criminal offenses you can't disclose.
10/ Trump trusts Giuliani—indeed Giuliani is one of the only men he trusts. So if Giuliani is confirming he thinks Trump may have lied to him, he's also confirming that Trump is engaged in an ongoing course of conduct—likely paying people off—he can't disclose even to his lawyer.
