Rudy Guiliani’s son stammers and stumbles when asked if his father would turn on Trump
Andrew Giuliani struggles to answer a question from Erin Burnett on CNN
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When asked if Rudy Giuliani would flip on former president Donald Trump, Mr Giuliani’s son appeared to be at a loss for words.
“No! I mean, he has – there is – I don’t really know what to, how to respond to this because it’s a theoretical,” Andrew Giuliani told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday.
Rudy Giuliani’s home and office were raided by federal investigators this week, on suspicion that he lobbied for Ukrainian interests while Mr Trump was in office without notifying the Justice Department.
Mr Giuliani, who served as Mr Trump’s personal lawyer during his presidency, has not at this point been charged with any crime. However, it is illegal to influence the US government on behalf of a foreign power without registering as a foreign lobbyist. Giuliani maintains he has done nothing wrong.
Earlier on Thursday, Michael Cohen – another former lawyer for Mr Trump – told CNN he thinks the investigation will make the elder Mr Giuliani “sweat,” and predicted that he will provide information on Mr Trump to try to limit his own legal exposure.
“Prior to Donald becoming president, Rudy didn’t like Donald, and Donald certainly didn’t like Rudy,” Mr Cohen told Alisyn Camerota. “So, do I think Rudy will give up Donald in a heartbeat? Absolutely.”
In Ms Burnett’s interview, she played back some of Mr Cohen’s words for Andrew Giuliani.
“So would your father turn on Trump to protect himself if that’s what it takes?” she asked.
“My father represented the president in good faith,” he stammered, “and I don’t – you know – this is all theoretical. If there was something that illegal that happened [sic] – there’s nothing illegal that happened!”
Ms Burnett persisted, pointing out that Andrew’s father could face up to five years in prison for the lobbying charge alone, and presented a hypothetical choice:
“Five years in prison, or tell me a few more details here about the former president?”
At this point, Andrew attempted to change the subject to Hunter Biden, whose laptop he said was at his father’s apartment during the raid.
“What I would say is, I do wonder if Hunter Biden is going to be charged with the four allegations that are out there against him,” he said.
Rudy Giuliani served Mr Trump with gusto as his personal attorney, particularly during his quixotic and baseless quest to overturn the 2020 election. But the period of time investigators are interested in is in 2019, when he helped the former president pressure Ukrainian officials to open investigations into Hunter Biden.
(Both Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.)
Democrats said the Ukraine scheme was an abuse of power designed to hurt the reputation of Joe Biden, and it led to Mr Trump’s first impeachment. Now prosecutors are investigating whether Mr Giuliani’s communications between the two countries not only served Mr Trump’s political interests, but the interests of Ukraininan oligarchs.
Mr Giuliani says he has done nothing wrong, and his lawyer has called the FBI raid a stunt to create “bad publicity.”
“This is totally unnecessary,” attorney Bob Costello told Fox News, saying it was designed to make Mr Giuliani “look like he’s some sort of criminal.”
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