Giuliani used a tunnel under Mar-a-Lago to go back and forth from Trump's home, where he stayed while he was depressed and drinking heavily, book says

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Rudy Giuliani
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
  • After losing the 2008 GOP presidential nod, Giuliani moved into Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, according to a forthcoming book.

  • A tunnel underneath the Palm Beach estate allowed Giuliani to travel back and forth unseen.

  • His ex-wife says he started drinking heavily and fell into "a clinical depression" after leaving the race.

Rudy Giuliani at one time secretly stayed at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where he used an underground tunnel to go back and forth from the resort while he was depressed and drinking a lot after falling short in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, according to a forthcoming book.

In the book, "Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor," Andrew Kirtzman detailed Giuliani's personal struggles after he left the GOP contest following a dismal showing in the Florida primary. The book features commentary from his third ex-wife, Judith Giuliani.

Giuliani "dreamed of becoming president from a young age, [but] blew his big moment when it arrived," Kirtzman wrote, according to an early copy of the book obtained by The Guardian.

Judith Giuliani reportedly told Kirtzman that her then-husband fell into "a clinical depression," which she said was based on her background as a nurse.

In the book, she described her ex-husband's excessive drinking as a way to "dull the pain," according to the Guardian report.

Video: Everything we know about the top-secret documents the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago

Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly denied that he has a drinking issue.

During the difficult time, Trump allowed the Giulianis to stay in a bungalow across the street from Mar-a-Lago that was accessed via an underground tunnel located beneath South Ocean Boulevard so they could avoid the media glare.

"We moved into Mar-a-Lago and Donald kept our secret," Judith Giuliani reportedly said in Kirtzman's book.

The former president's South Florida estate — already a well-known locale — has garnered sustained attention after the FBI earlier this month searched the property and agents confiscated over 300 classified documents.

The release of the search warrant revealed that agents were looking for documents connected to potential violations of the Espionage Act, which bars the unauthorized removal of defense-related information that could aid a foreign government. Trump is also being investigated for potential obstruction of justice violations.

While the former president has said the documents taken by agents were "declassified," over a dozen former Trump White House officials have disputed such an assertion.

Kirtzman's book, which is set to be published next month, chronicled the close bond and "compelling kinship" between the former mayor and former president.

Judith Giuliani told Kirtzman that Trump and his wife Melania Trump "kept a protective eye" on their friends.

"What's clear is the two men's friendship survived when a hundred other Trump relationships died away like so many marriages of convenience," Kirtz wrote in the book. "Giuliani would never turn his back on Trump, much to his detriment."

Rudy Giuliani went on to become one of Trump's most trusted allies during the longtime New York businessman's White House administration, at one point serving as the then-president's personal lawyer and also acting as a top campaign surrogate before and after the 2020 presidential election.

In the aftermath of the 2020 race, Giuliani worked feverishly to sway Republican lawmakers in a series of key swing states — including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — in a bid to overturn now-President Joe Biden's 2020 win.

After the news broke of the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, Giuliani told The New York Post that Trump would "raid every one of Biden's houses" if the ex-president were to launch a successful 2024 presidential campaign.

Read the original article on Business Insider