Gage Skidmore

Politics

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Rudy Giuliani: Fact or Fiction? A Case of Contradiction

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer made waters murky for Donald in a New York Times report. The Times reports that, in response to the Buzzfeed News report, he claimed Trump was involved in the Moscow deal up until the day he won the 2016 election.

However, Giuliani claims it didn’t go past a letter of intent. “The only thing that ever happened was that [Trump’s Team] submitted a letter of intent about a possible project in Moscow that never went beyond that. No money was ever paid, no plans were ever made. There were no drafts. Nothing in the file. Nothing ever happened to it,” says Rudy Giuliani.

In a rare instance, the Special Counsel’s office is calling the report “not accurate.” Despite the dispute from Robert Mueller’s office, Buzzfeed News has reported that its anonymous sources are “federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter” and there is corroborating evidence through emails, text messages and a “cache of other documents.” Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier of Buzzfeed News are standing by their reporting.

It should come as no surprise that Trump also discredited the article via a tweet on Thursday.

Clarification on the timeline of Trump’s communication with Russia is important because it would give clarity on Trump’s effort to work out a business deal while running for president in 2016.

Unfortunately, it appears Giuliani is taking on a Trump tactic or two — just confuse your audience and bad mouth the source you’re refuting.

On Monday, in an effort to clarify his remarks, he spoke with The New Yorker and seemed to only make matters worse by contradicting what he said to The New York Times.

The Monday interview started with Isaac Chotiner asking the former New York mayor for his response to the Buzzfeed News report from Thursday. “There are no tapes, there are no texts, there is no corroboration. That’s why the Special Counsel said the story was inaccurate,” Giuliani responded.

Chotiner then pressed Giuliani by asking him for how he knew the story was false. Giuliani said, “I have been through all the texts, I have seen the emails and I know none existed.”

Chotiner went on to ask Giuliani, “Wait, what tapes have you been through?” The BuzzFeed news report made no mention of tapes. Giuliani responded by walking back his previous statement by saying, “No tapes. Well, I have listened to tapes, but none of them concern this.”

He continued by stating he did not make the comments published by the times and that, “[Trump] didn’t have the conversations…even if it’s true, it’s not criminal” and “I am not saying that he did it. I just told you he didn’t do it. I am telling you that their investigation is so ridiculous that, even if he did do it, it wouldn’t be a crime.”

After all the head-scratching through The New Yorker interview, you would think Chotiner’s last question about Giuliani’s legacy would be clear and simple. Yet, the former New York mayor left readers with even more confusion and questioning as to whether to believe what he says.

For those who remember the Giuliani from the 9/11 era, they know this is a strange version of Giuliani. That Giuliani showed leadership and bravery — while this version of Giuliani is proving to be confusing and contradicting, leaving the American people confused as to what to believe.

Following that interview, over the weekend Rudy Giuliani visited NBC’s “Meet the Press” and brought the confusion back full circle. While there, he told the press that Donald Trump remembered “conversations about the Moscow Project with Cohen throughout 2016 and even as far as October, November.”

So which is it? Does Trump remember conversations throughout potentially October 2016 or was that hypothetical as he now claims? Or is there no corroborating evidence, as he claimed in his interview with The New Yorker?

Unfortunately, only time will tell as Mueller’s investigation comes to light.

As of Wednesday morning, reports were saying Trump was fuming and angered at Rudy Giuliani for his recent Russia comments, but there was no mention of him being fired.