Tag: Rudy Giuliani

-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) Today in 5 Lines During an address to the annual NRA convention in Dallas, Texas, President Trump assured voters that he would protect the Second Amendment, criticized the special-counsel investigation, and thanked rapper Kanye West for his support. President Trump told reporters that Rudy Giuliani needed to “get his facts straight” after the former mayor said that Trump reimbursed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Hours later, Giuliani walked back his comments. Jennifer Pena, the White House physician assigned to Vice President Mike Pence, resigned after fallout over President Trump’s doctor and former pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ronny Jackson. CNN reported earlier this week that Pena had raised concerns about Jackson’s workplace conduct last fall. The Department of Homeland Security ended a program that allowed 57,000 Honduran citizens to temporarily live and work in the United States. The U.S. added 164,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent. Today on The Atlantic Absurd in Every Way: The Iran Deal was a cover for American inaction and former President Obama’s paralyzing fear of war, argues Reuel Marc Gerecht. Changing a Sacred Text: Some of France’s most prominent political leaders are calling to strike particular verses from the Quran. The idea doesn’t sit well with the country’s Muslims.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s new legal team made a chaotic debut as Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was tapped recently to be one of the president’s lawyers, potentially exposed his client to legal and political danger by publicly revealing the existence of secret payments to Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer. After he moved into the White House, the president began paying Mr. Cohen $35,000 a month, Mr. Giuliani said, in part as reimbursement for a $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen made to a pornographic film actress to keep her from going public about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump. Legally, the failure to disclose the payments could be a violation of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which requires that federal officials, including Mr. Trump, report any liabilities of more than $10,000 during the preceding year. Politically, Mr. Giuliani’s remarks — made in television appearances and interviews — raised questions about the president’s truthfulness and created a firestorm at the White House, where aides were caught off guard and furiously sought to deflect questions they could not answer. Mr. Giuliani’s disclosure is a sign of how Mr. Trump’s reshuffled legal team — which now includes a highly paid Washington lawyer, a famous former mayor, a constitutional lawyer who specializes in religious cases and former federal prosecutors — will function in the coming weeks as they sort out who takes the lead on representing the president. Mr. Trump faces a two-front battle with the Justice Department: one investigation in New York into Mr. Cohen and the special counsel investigation in Washington. The more helpful the president was, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Cobb told him last year, the more likely the investigation would conclude by year’s end. Instead, the investigation has intensified, and the president has concluded that approach was a mistake, according to people close to him. He did his job.” Violating campaign finance laws can be serious. “President Trump’s interest is not the same as Michael Cohen’s interest.” In his tweets on Thursday, Mr. Trump contradicted his earlier statements that he knew of no payment to Ms. Clifford.

Rudy Giuliani took to the warm confines of Fox News last night to contradict just about every claim his client Donald Trump has made on this subject of Stormy Daniels. Giuliani has been all over Fox for the last 24…

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is actively considering what would be the most appropriate thank-you gift to send to the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a source close to Mueller’s team has confirmed. According to the source, Mueller and his team were behind closed doors on Thursday morning to discuss the gift and appear to be close to a decision. “They’ve been around and around on this, but a consensus seems to be forming on a bottle of single-malt Scotch,” the source said. Moments after the news of Mueller’s gift to Giuliani leaked, however, Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’s lawyer, indicated that he had already sent Giuliani a single-malt Scotch on Thursday morning and advised Mueller to select an alternative gift, such as Dom Pérignon champagne or beluga caviar. Responding to Avenatti’s comments, federal prosecutors investigating Michael Cohen issued a statement asserting that they had, in fact, sent Giuliani an entire case of champagne last night, which would appear to leave caviar as Mueller’s only remaining gift option. The source close to Mueller said that, no matter what gift the special counsel ultimately chooses, it will be an inadequate token of gratitude. “You can’t put a price tag on what Rudy has done for Bob,” the source said.

Today in 5 Lines The Senate confirmed Jim Bridenstine, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma, to serve as the new NASA administrator. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, the first sitting senator to give birth while in office, brought her newborn baby to the floor to cast her “no” vote. The Justice Department’s inspector general reportedly referred its findings on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible criminal charges. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s official portrait will cost taxpayers $85,000, which is more than his three predecessors combined. Today on The Atlantic The Buck Doesn’t Stop There: Dumping President Trump won’t actually get rid of the GOP’s problems. (Conor Friedersdorf) Why Do Trump’s Defenders Assume He’s Guilty? : Allies of the president have made some peculiar comments over the past few days. (David A. Graham) A Shared Problem: The focus on James Comey, Michael Cohen, and Stormy Daniels might pose a serious threat to Republicans in the midterms, but Trump’s personal dramas could hurt Democrats, too. (Ronald Brownstein) Snapshot What We’re Reading ‘The Fatalist Conceit’: The frustration many liberals feel about President Trump is a byproduct of the left’s unreasonable expectations: They think they can change the country through politics. (Mary Jordan, The Washington Post) -Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey)

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The independent counsel, Robert Mueller, told reporters that, prior to news reports on Thursday, he had “almost forgotten” to investigate the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. “Like most Americans, I had totally forgotten about Rudy Giuliani’s existence,” he said. “But then when he popped up on the news I was, like, ‘Hold on—shouldn’t we be investigating him?’ ” Mueller was at a loss to explain why he had failed to investigate Giuliani earlier. “I have no idea how it could have slipped my mind,” he said. “His role in Trump’s campaign was as fishy as all get-out.” He said that other members of his team were “poking fun” at him for not deciding to investigate Giuliani before Thursday. “I mean, think about it: how do you do a criminal investigation of the Trump campaign and leave Rudy out of it?” he said. “I’ve got to say, I’m pretty darn embarrassed about the whole thing.” When asked for an estimate of when the Russia inquiry might wrap up, Mueller responded, “I honestly can’t say. I was hoping to bring it to a close in the next month or two, but now that we’re also investigating Rudy Giuliani, God only knows how long it’ll take.”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The White House announced on Thursday that Donald Trump had successfully secured the services of Rudolph Giuliani, after an exhaustive search for an attorney with fewer clients than Michael D. Cohen. “President Trump had become concerned in recent days that Mr. Cohen might be too distracted to pay full attention to his case, what with him having two other clients and all,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said. “So the search was on for a lawyer with zero clients, and with the hiring of Mayor Giuliani, the President believes he has hit the jackpot.” Speaking to reporters, Giuliani agreed that, by virtue of having three fewer clients than Cohen, he was uniquely qualified to give Trump his full attention. “There is absolutely no chance of my ever putting him on hold,” Giuliani said. While the former New York mayor’s hiring got high marks from Trump’s inner circle, it drew a bitter reaction from Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, who angrily pointed out that he had not been considered for the job despite having as few clients as Giuliani. “Not only do I have absolutely no clients, I have even less going on, career-wise, than Rudy Giuliani,” Christie said. “Once again, I’ve been screwed.”