NEW YORK — Michael Ragusa, a Rikers Island investigator who dropped out of a City Council race earlier this year after his campaign faced accusations of ballot petition fraud, recently began moonlighting as a security guard for embattled former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Daily News has learned. Ragusa, who mounted an unsuccessful GOP bid for the 47th Council District in southern Brooklyn before pulling the plug on it in April, confirmed Friday he started the Giuliani security guard gig about a year ago, months before the ex-mayor was indicted in Georgia this summer on criminal charges stemming f...
A former Rudy Giuliani staffer on Thursday lamented the downward spiral of his ex-boss, who he said has become a “pathetic shadow of his former self.”
Former Giuliani spokesman Ken Frydman’s appearance on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” followed reports former President Donald Trump was holding a $100,000-per-plate fundraiser for the former New York City mayor to help cover his legal bills.
Giuliani and Trump are among 19 co-defendants who were indicted in the Georgia election conspiracy case, which is being charged under the state’s racketeering law.
Collins noted that Frydman has known Giuliani since the 1990s.
“What happened? What changed from Rudy Giuliani being this legendary U.S. Attorney, this former mayor here in New York City into a co-defendant in the state of Georgia, unindicted potentially in other cases, and the fact that he's having to fundraise so much money?” she asked.
“Well, he took on Donald Trump as a client. Shame on him for not knowing that he wouldn't pay his bills, shame on him for not knowing that he would get in trouble, certainly not to the degree that he's gotten. I don't think he ever anticipated being indicted, certainly. But he should have known better. Donald Trump has a long history of not paying his attorneys and not caring about, you know how it turns out for them,” Frydman said.
“How much is his lifestyle changed?” Asked Collins. “I mean, CNBC said in 2012, that he was one of the richest politicians in America and had a wealth of about $65 million. And now he's struggling to pay, you know, they claimed $20,000 recently.”
“He had a very expensive divorce as you know, Caitlin, and his legal fees are just adding up every day and he doesn't have a way really to make a living because law licenses have been suspended in in D.C. and New York, and who would hire him as an attorney anyway, so he's left to cameo appearances and his WABC talk show which I understand he makes about $400,000 a year but that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what he owes,” Frydman said.
Collins noted that Giuliani is also selling his New York apartment.
“He listed it for a $6.5 million, I think he paid $4.77 (million) in 2002, so $2 million increase but it didn't appreciate the way so many other apartments in that neighborhood have so it's a fire sale,” Frydman said.
“It seems like a very different Rudy Giuliani than the one that you were working for in 1993,” noted Collins.
“A very sad in some say pathetic shadow of his former self, and I'm very sad to see it,” Frydman said.
“I think the attorneys should be telling him that his only goal should be to die free man and keep kicking the can down the road, delay, delay, delay, his legal matters as long as he can. And same for Trump.”
A legal expert suggested Thursday Rudy Giuliani could eventually turn on the former president.
NYU law professor Ryan Goodman during an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” suggested that perceived disloyalty and financial strain could compel the former New York City mayor to flip on Donald Trump.
Goodman’s comments came amid reports Trump was holding a $100,000-per-plate fundraiser for Giuliani’s legal fees at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday night.
“Giuliani is so crucial in all of these cases that Trump is doing this now. Is there a risk of Giuliani I guess for lack of a better word flipping if Trump doesn't help them in this way,” Burnett asked Goodman.
“I could easily imagine so,” Goodman said. “So I would side essentially with what the advisors who are telling Trump you know, ‘if you want to keep him in the fold, you want to keep this person viable financially,’ because if he is going down financially at this burn rate, then he might very well think, just out of a sense of betrayal, ‘even though I didn't ask him directly, he has not given back to me, given how much I've given my life to the former president.’"
“And the second (reason) might just be when these financial bills start to mount like this, you just can't have the legal team that you need in place to fend off an indictment in Georgia that might take four months, and then the judge in Georgia this week said, ‘Well, it might be double that amount of time.’ That's just an enormous financial bill that he has to pay if he's going to put up a strong defense.”
“Have you ever heard anything like this people raising money like this?” Burnett asked.
“No,” Goodman said. “it's also unusual to go up to a billionaire or multi billionaire’s home in order to pay $100,000 when that person is sitting in that room could obviously cut the check.”
While senators’ health ailments are dominating cable shows and social media, the debate has barely penetrated the marble walls of one of the nation’s oldest Senates ever.
That’s by design.
“It is an institution that honors old age. Seniority is everything,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Raw Story after voting at the Capitol on Wednesday. “The Senate is also a place where one person on the first day can do some really big things, mostly based on their ability to obstruct, but that's the way it's built. It does reward longevity, and, consequently, you end up with a lot of older members.”
Indeed, the position of Senate president pro tempore — third in line to the presidency — is traditionally reserved for the majority party senator who’s served the longest, continuously. Committee chairpersons are often, if not exclusively, given to a majority party senator with the longest service on a given committee.
You also end up with a lot of secrets in an already secretive body. There’s a seemingly impenetrable veil of silence at the Capitol when it comes to lawmakers with failing health.
Seemingly, one of the most enduring bipartisan principles in the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” seems to be that you let your political friends and foes alike die as they please — even if you find them diminishing right next to you as you consider some of the nation’s most critical decisions and cast consequential votes.
When Senate insiders do talk — staffers, in particular — it’s generally in whispers about the lengths some must go to prop up their aged bosses. And it’s not pretty.
‘Out of respect for colleagues’
Six years ago — or one term, according to Senate time — in her piece, “An old-school pharmacy hand-delivers drugs to Congress,”Erin Mershon of STAT News reported that Capitol Hill pharmacist Mike Kim fills Alzheimer’s prescriptions for at least one member of Congress.
That terrifyingly tantalizing admission is news to freshmen senators — “That's pretty wild. I'm gonna look that up and read it,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told Raw Story — but it’s simply the ways of Washington to senior senators who seem in on the not-so-secret-secret.
“I actually don't want to comment on that out of respect for colleagues,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told Raw Story after exiting a Senate elevator.
Others shrug off reports of their congressional colleagues being afflicted with debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s.
“We're a representative body reflective of the country. There's probably a lot of people in the workforce that are engaged in all kinds of different medications, whether they're for Alzheimer's, mental health, whatever. That doesn't surprise me,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Raw Story on Wednesday while walking next to the underground Senate tram.
Capito serves as a part of McConnell’s leadership team. She was in his office Tuesday night for their regular start of the week meeting.
“He was sharp as ever,” Capito said.
How the ravages of age affect the human body is a congressional drama that’s as old as Congress.
In 1846, former President John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Voters didn’t care. The former U.S. senator from Massachusetts overcame its debilitating effects and was then sent back to Washington, only this time as a member of the House.
That’s where, in 1848, Adams collapsed as he rose in his seat on the House floor only to later die in the Speaker’s Room of the Capitol.
More recently, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) remained in office until his 100th birthday.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) died in office in 2009 at 77.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) died in office in 2010 at 92.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) died in office in 2018 at 81.
Such situations can leave millions of constituents without the active representation of a key, duly elected federal lawmaker — or, in the case of those who die in office, no elected representation at all. Governors work to quickly fill their seat, but they don’t consult voters and often tap one of their political allies, some of whom never seem to leave the seat.
‘Medicine shouldn't be politicized’
These days, the nation’s aged politicians are protected by their aides and most of their colleagues whoplay senatorially-supportive roles.
But every now and again, a lawmaker breaks Congress’ unofficially-official code of silence.
We saw that rarity this spring when Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) had enough ofthe congressional veil of silence after his state’s senior stateswoman, Feinstein, told Raw Story, “I’m not announcing anything” — hours after her office had literally announced she wasn’t seeking re-election in 2024.
As Khanna took to social media to call for Feinstein’s resignation, he showed the public what’s common knowledge in Washington: Feinstein stopped making some of her own decisions long ago.
“It’s time for@SenFeinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties,” Khanna wrote. “Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.”
Of course, it would be unethical, immoral and idiotic for a doctor to divulge their patient’s diagnosis without consent. Consent, however, is not the problem when Washington physicians go out of their way to politically protect politicians.
Glowing physical examinations can transform a physician into a politician. Just ask Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX). He catapulted himself into the U.S. House Representatives after garnering headlines while serving as former President Donald Trump’s White House physician. Politicized medicine is a disease all its own, at least according to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The Duke-trained ophthalmologist is one of four physicians currently serving in the Senate. He’s openly questioning Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of U.S. Congress, for reporting McConnell’s showing no signs of a seizure or stroke.
“Medicine shouldn't be politicized, and if you're giving advice on, you know, what someone's potential diagnosis is, really, it ought to be based on the facts. And what I can tell you is that having vacant spells of 30 seconds or more where you’re unresponsive, is not a sign or a symptom of a concussion,” Paul told reporters Wednesday.
Bolstered by the Capitol physician’s report, the 81-year-old Senate minority leader brushed aside health questions Wednesday.
“I’m going to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term,” McConnell told the congressional press corps.
Everything’s … fine?
To many members of the Senate, everything’s fine, even if many read more into McConnell’s health episodes than the congressional physician reported.
“I think people need to actually read his book to understand the guy had polio and polio’s coming back and he's having some serious pain issues,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Raw Story just off the Senate floor. “The first time it happened, he was on the floor at 10 o’clock that night having conversations with us. Sharp as a tack.”
At the start of this Congress, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) challenged McConnell’s leadership position, but, like most all others, he’s backing McConnell now.
Support McConnell continuing as leader?
“Absolutely,” Scott told reporters at the Capitol. “Mine was all about how you manage the Congress.”
As for Feinstein?
“Every time I’ve talked to her she’s been really nice to me,” Scott told Raw Story.
In your five years serving next to Feinstein, ever had a good policy conversation with her?
In a building built on seniority, members of both parties have already gamed out what the eventual exits of Feinstein and McConnell — and their combined 70 years in Washington — mean for their respective party’s rank and file.
But those whispers are kept far away from the cameras, secure within the bipartisan veil of silence.
While Feinstein checked outlong ago, McConnell, who isn’t up for re-election until 2026, seems bent on staying put for at least the next three-plus years.
His colleagues seem fine with that, because, most argue, Kentuckians decided to give him a seventh six-year term back in 2020 — even if voters nationally overwhelmingly support congressional term limits and age limits. Many frustrated voters even support cognitive tests for older lawmakers — something Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has vocally pushed for lawmakers over the age of 75.
In New Hampshire on Tuesday, Haley even suggested 80-year-old President Joe Biden, if elected for a second term, would die before his term was up in 2029.
"There's no way Joe Biden is going to be 86. We all see it. This is about the fact that — you think it it's bad now? This could get so much more worse," Haley said.
Meanwhile, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump would become the oldest person elected president — 78 in November 2024 — were he to win the White House next year.
As for McConnell, many lawmakers just wish he'd get his eyes checked. Because, even as most senators reject proposals like term limits or mental fitness tests, they say Washington’s broken. They just wish those at the top of Washington’s power pyramid could see the ruins they’ve left in their storied wakes.
“It barely functions at all, as far as I can tell,” Cramer of North Dakota told Raw Story. “I think we should get back to some better guardrails.”
Donald Trump will host a candlelight dinner with his two adult sons at Mar-a-Lago to raise money to pay legal bills for his co-defendants in four criminal cases.
The fundraiser, which does not yet have a date or time scheduled, could raise between $500,000 to $1 million for the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, according to two sources familiar with the planning, and is supposed to operate alongside the Save America PAC that's primarily paying Trump's legal bills, reported The Messenger.
“Save America wasn’t really designed as a legal defense fund, so as the legal landscape evolved, so did this effort,” said one Trump official familiar with the planning. “The fact is that the Department of Justice is trying to bankrupt people and make them drown under legal bills, but Donald Trump is not going to let them.”
Save America had paid at least $22 million to cover legal expenses for the former president and his employees, former employees and others caught up in the various criminal investigations into his presidency and businesses, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Elections Commission, but the Patriot Legal Defense Fund was set up in July, just after Trump revealed he was a target of special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation.
“Just responding to a subpoena can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Being a criminal defendant costs of hundreds of thousands,” said conservative attorney Mike Davis, who claims that Smith and other prosecutors who have charged Trump are all Democrats. “That’s the point of this Democrat lawfare. They’re making the process the punishment. They don’t care if the Supreme Court ultimately rejects their bogus legal theories. The goal is to take out Trump and punish his supporters before Nov. 5, 2024.”
Trump has raised about $10 million off the mugshot taken Aug. 25 in Fulton County, Georgia, where he and 18 co-defendants have been charged with racketeering, and 90 percent of every dollar he raises goes toward his campaign and 10 percent to Save America.
The ex-president will also stop by a fundraiser Thursday at his Bedminister, New Jersey, golf club for former campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani that could raise up to $1 million, and that's what organizers are hoping to raise for Trump's co-defendants at Mar-a-Lago -- which may also feature a reception of about 20 people before the dinner.
"It's a family style dinner, very intimate and exclusive," said one Trump official.
Politico wrote Wednesday about a Rudy Giuliani strategist, Katherine Friess, who no one seems to be able to find.
The report cited one piece from the House Select Committee investigating the 2020 election overthrow attempt to get her testimony, but she fought it in court. Prosecutors tried to find her for other cases, but failed. In the defamation case of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Politico said they searched for Friess for months, but claimed she'd “vanished.”
The emails that Politico obtained make it clear she was "an active figure in Giuliani’s effort who feared what would happen if they failed. And they show that like so many others who have worked for Trump over the decades, Friess struggled to get paid."
She'd previously worked for lobbyist Charlie Black, who worked with Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. Ironically, she also worked for Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD), who attacked Trump for his role in Jan. 6, even going so far as to say he "incited an insurrection,” Politico cited.
The first email Politico reviewed to Giuliani was Friess complaining about her restricted access to mail-in ballots being counted in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. She went so far as to sign a declaration about her entitlement to observe, but it never seemed to be included in any legal filing the reporters could locate.
"In the document, Friess said she was an approved Republican Party observer and spent two hours watching the process at a Pittsburgh canvassing center on the morning of Nov. 3, 2020," the report said. She added that she didn't have a good view of the counting and reviewing.
“I do not believe any of these ballots should be allowed to be part of the final vote tally,” she wrote.
Friess explained that she was a lawyer who ran a national security company. "Public filings indicate the firm, Seven Good Stones, is located in Colorado, which is also where Friess — in one of her only public actions in recent years — sued to block a Jan. 6 select committee subpoena for her phone records," the report said. Both in Washington, D.C. and in Colorado, her law licenses are inactive.
Her emails with Giuliani and his colleague Bernard Kerik continued as she shared contacts for people who could speak out at "voter fraud" hearings. Giuliani testified that he sent her to at least "one significant meeting" on his behalf. She also interacted with Trump, he testified.
A Michigan newspaper, the Traverse City Record-Eagle, revealed that after Thanksgiving, Friess flew to Michigan on a private jet to do her own inspection of Antrim County voting machines. The report said that the county clerk found it alarming.
“She called me several times and wanted me to open everything up, open up the machines,” Antrim County Clerk Sheryl Guy said.
“This was before the lawsuit was filed and Bill Bailey was the one who put her onto me,” Guy said. “He wanted me to talk with her. I told her I did not have the authority to do what she wanted. Then I stopped taking her calls.”
Politico said that Friess' role was never clear, with Giuliani saying he never endorsed her communications plan which would have launched a ten-day media blitz about voter fraud leading into Jan. 6.
Another email showed she also helped raise money for Giuliani's efforts for Trump.
Each of the emails used encryption through either Hushmail or ProtonMail accounts.
Then, in late Dec. 2020, Friess sent a draft message that she intended to send to the White House demanding security clearance for Giuliani and Kerik as part of a "project" and classified "Directive."
“Given the classification status of the Directive and its resulting work product, for continued work on this project at all levels, our team members will need to be granted a provisional clearance for work on this project,” Friess wrote in her email.
“If you would please arrange for this, it would be most helpful to our efforts to defend the President," the email said. It was directed to "Mike Meadows," presumably meant to be then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Former professional surfer Conan Hayes was later added to the clearance list, as was former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. It's unknown if the email ever made it to the White House or even what the "project" she referenced was.
The clearance approval would have given the men access to classified documents.
Politico asked several people where Friess was throughout the course of their investigation. No one knew.
“At least one third-party, Katherine Friess … has vanished,” Politico cited Freeman and Moss’ attorneys explaining last month. “Despite months of efforts, including extensive investigation and an order from this Court authorizing Plaintiffs to serve Katherine Friess by alternative service … Ms. Friess has never responded to Plaintiffs’ subpoenas nor provided documentary evidence, and Defendant Giuliani has declined to say where she might be.”
Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, issued a warning for those ensnared in legal battles with the former president that he isn't likely to help with legal bills.
On Tuesday, CNN's Abby Phillip asked Cohen about the expenses that can mount after working with Trump personally, given his own legal battles.
"Like I said before. Donald doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself," Cohen explained. "He's not going to waste a single penny on these people. He's gonna use a line to say that about wouldn't look right if I paid your legal bills. It's gonna look like we have a joint defense agreement or there's collusion going on between us. He will use anything that he can in order to continue to grift off the American people, his supporters, for himself, not for the benefit of others."
Cohen agreed it certainly is something he understands well, but said that unless a co-defendant is wealthy in their own right, fighting the government is going to bankrupt people. It's something that Rudy Giuliani has learned recently.
"At the end of the day, these people are sunk," he said.
The comments come after Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in organizing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
"They are now seeing the damage that Donald Trump has caused to their lives," Cohen said of those insurrectionists facing jail time and hefty fines. "But let's not forget the damage that he is causing to so many others' lives, mine included. So, the reality should be a warning to all of these co-defendants in the Georgia case that this is going to happen to them as well. It's why I constantly say on social media, or coming to you here, Abby, on CNN, that the time period that these people are going to get is going to be significant. So, if they think the Jan. 6 six cases are isolated, they are not. So, I suspect that the Fulton County, Georgia determinations will be equally as painful."
Jenna Ellis "has raised nearly $200,000 to pay for her legal expenses in his election interference case in Georgia—one of several co-defendants crowd-funding as Trump has reportedly given no indication he plans to help them financially," Dorn writes. "Ellis' legal team has raised more than $195,000 as of Tuesday to help pay for her legal expenses through the site GiveSendGo, where a description of her fundraiser says she is 'being targeted and the government is trying to criminalize the practice of law.'"
Ellis, Dorn adds, "has been outspoken about Trump's lack of financial backing, questioning in a tweet whether the situation 'would change if he becomes the nominee' and asking why his political action committee, MAGA Inc. isn't 'funding everyone’s defense?'"
Coup memo author John Eastman, ex-United States Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and former Coffee County Republican Party Chair Cathy Latham have also raised, collectively, hundreds of thousands of dollars, Dorn continues, adding that embattled "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani "is essentially broke and unable to pay his mounting legal bills in several of the Trump-involved cases."
Dorn notes, "Trump's political action committee has spent tens of millions of dollars to help pay for his own legal expenses associated with his four criminal cases and various civil cases against him. His allies also set up a legal defense fund earlier this year to help offset the costs, and some of the money is expected to go toward Trump's current and former employees who have become involved in the cases. Trump and 18 others were charged with racketeering in Georgia last month, among 41 total counts filed against them, marking his fourth indictment this year. The Justice Department also indicted him in two separate cases related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, along with his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, and he faces a fourth set of charges in Manhattan Criminal Court for his alleged role in a hush-money scheme."
Dorn implied that Trump's lack of support could determine "whether Trump's co-defendants will flip on him in the Georgia election interference case in plea deals with prosecutors."
Some of them, Dorn recalls, "have suggested in court filings they were acting at Trump's direction when they attempted to help block President Joe Biden's Georgia victory.
An eventful week lies ahead in the Fulton County election interference case with arraignments and the potential release of a special grand jury report that was a prelude to the racketeering charges filed against Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants last month.
There have been a flurry of court filings and hearings on the 2020 election collusion case since a grand jury on Aug. 14 indicted the former Republican president and 18 of his supporters over allegations they illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and several other states.
Defendants are scheduled to appear in Fulton County Superior Court on Wednesday for their arraignments, during which they will be formally read the criminal charges they are facing and enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.
Last week, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee gave the 19 defendants the opportunity to formally waive their arraignment within 48 hours of Wednesday’s court date.
Several defendants, including Trump, attorneys Ray Smith and Sidney Powell and entertainment publicist Trevian Kutti, took advantage by entering not guilty pleas and voluntarily waiving their rights to appear in court on Wednesday.
As of Friday evening, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was still among the co-defendants who had not yet waived their arraignments.
There is also the possibility that the week concludes on Friday with the release of the special purpose grand jury’s report that recommended prosecutors consider criminal charges against several people for their roles in trying to disrupt the 2020 election.
District attorneys use special grand juries to review evidence for extensive investigations, but they cannot indict criminals like a regular grand jury.
According to a court filing from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury, the full report will be published online by 5 p.m. Friday if there are no objections.
The special grand jury over the course of seven months last year heard testimony from 75 witnesses over seven months, including people with direct connections to Trump, election experts, poll workers, elected officials and state employees.
Since February, several media outlets have challenged Fulton County District Fani Willis’ objections to the report’s release as she argued that it could hinder the investigation prior to any potential indictments against suspects.
The first portions of the document released in February revealed that a majority of 23 jurors believed that multiple people perjured themselves, but did not identify potential suspects or other potential criminal charges.
Federal judge considers ex-Trump officials request
A ruling could come down this week from U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones on a request from former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to have his case moved to federal court in Atlanta.
Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark are seeking to have their cases removed from state court under the legal theory that the criminal charges they face occurred while they were performing their job duties on behalf of the federal government. Federal law prohibits states from prosecuting federal officers who are acting in their official capacities.
Meadows is accused of racketeering and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer for his role in a phone call in which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, to “find 11,780 votes,” which would have been enough to tilt Georgia’s election in the outgoing president’s favor.
Meanwhile Clark, while serving as Trump’s top environmental lawyer in 2020, is accused of providing advice that encouraged officials in several other states to appoint an alternate slate of 2020 GOP electors who would cast votes declaring Trump the winner over Biden.
The indictment also accuses Clark of soliciting a U.S. attorney general and deputy attorney general in December 2020 to make false statements about significant concerns about the election’s results after Georgia election officials had certified Biden’s victory.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
Donald Trump and the GOP can’t figure out how best to attack President Joe Biden, according to commentary from NBC News Monday.
“Sleepy Joe” – the nickname favored by Trump for his Democratic foe in 2020 – has transformed into “Crooked Joe,” the mastermind of a scheme to weaponize the federal government against the former president.
But the two are vastly contradictory descriptions, NBC News’ Sahil Kapur wrote.
“With the "Crooked Joe" persona, Trump routinely implies that a man he has suggested is not mentally fit has secretly been manipulating the Justice Department — as well as state prosecutors he has no authority over, and even secretive grand juries who were legally required to approve the indictments — while covering his tracks so well that House Republican investigators with subpoena power struggle to uncover proof,” he wrote.
“‘I’m confused. Is dementia-riddled Joe Biden also controlling the people in all of these separate grand juries in four different jurisdictions in four states?’ quipped former GOP operative-turned-Trump-critic Tim Miller on Bulwark's ‘The Next Level Podcast.’”
And the confusion over how best to portray Biden runs throughout the GOP, Kapur wrote.
“The GOP's internal conflict on how to portray Biden — senile and incompetent, or corrupt and merciless — is also on display in the 2024 presidential primary,” he wrote.
While some candidates, including Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott, focus on accusations of weaponization of the Department of Justice, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley sees portraying the 80-year-old president as “weak and frail” as more useful to her campaign.
“Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” she said earlier this year.
In reaction, Biden’s spokesperson Kevin Munoz told NBC News: “Donald Trump is running on the same, unpopular agenda that lost him the election in 2020. No name-calling that he shouts into his MAGA echo chamber changes that fact.”
He went on, “Donald Trump may come up with a lot of nicknames for President Biden, but we have a better one: winner.”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani suggested that there could be "other crimes" that he has not been charged with after facing a criminal indictment and a defamation case in Georgia.
On Sunday, Giuliani spoke to Newsmax host Lidia Curanaj about a case where he was found liable for defaming Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
The former mayor claimed that up to $20 million had been spent on law firms trying to bring him down.
"So it is punishment by process," he said, arguing that attorneys were filing discovery requests to find "other crimes that maybe I committed" and "crimes that Donald Trump may have committed."
"I do not admit anything," Giuliani added, despite conceding that he had made false statements against the election workers.
Giuliani said that he was "not contesting" the claims against him.
"We want to move on to the legal aspects of the cases," he remarked. "I'm not stupid enough to think I'm going to get a fair trial in front of [the judge] and the District of Columbia."
"I'd have to be not a lawyer to think that," he concluded.
Fox News anchor Gillian Turner reflected on the "downfall" of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani after he brought legal problems "upon himself."
During a Sunday discussion on Fox News, host Howard Kurtz asked Turner about the media coverage of Giuliani after a judge found him liable for defaming two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
"Do you see in the coverage a sense of payback that many people at other news organizations are saying, oh, this is great?" Kurtz wondered.
"I think that a lot of the media has really relished covering the downfall of Rudy Giuliani," Turner replied. "And this is sort of the culmination of that process, which has been underway, I think, for years now."
"I also think that, put it this way, I also think that some of the coverage he has brought upon himself, it's not exactly the case that he's a wallflower who shies away," she added. "He's a confrontational guy. I mean, he has incited a lot of this. And a lot of the, you know, he really enjoys media confrontations."
With former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani yet to enter a Georgia courtroom and face racketeering charges, his life, finances and reputation are all in tatters and he has only himself to blame for it.
In a column for MSNBC, constitutional law expert Gerry Weber suggested the man once called "America's mayor" threw it all away for Donald Trump and his actions in Georgia, which resulted in both a civil lawsuit and a criminal indictment, led him to make terrible decisions that are directly responsible for his downfall.
As Weber explained, Giuliani's loss in a defamation case, which are notoriously hard to prove, can be directly attributed to his destroying evidence -- something every lawyer knows is beyond the pale.
"Despite having been a lawyer for more than 50 years, the judge said Giuliani was destroying evidence in the defamation lawsuit even as he was warned repeatedly about the consequences." Weber wrote before adding, "Destroying evidence risks the nuclear bomb of consequences in any lawsuit, namely, a default judgment. A default judgment means the defendant’s liability is sealed, and fault is determined. Key to the issuance of the most egregious of sanctions is whether the party who destroyed evidence did so in bad faith."
Noting that Judge Beryl Howell wrote, "The fact that Giuliani is a sophisticated litigant with a self-professed 50 years of experience in litigation …. only underscores his lackluster preservation efforts,” Weber added, "Default was really the only option."
Writing, "Giuliani has only himself to blame," Weber continued, "And the legal system itself has been sullied, too, by a man who was once a hero to folks of all political stripes but is now a self-admitted fabulist who helped trigger a mob. Defamation cases are hard to win. But not when an experienced and once respected lawyer destroys evidence and hides the truth."
