Donald Trump’s aides believed Rudy Giuliani was usually drunk and on the verge of senility, according to an explosive new book by Michael Wolff.
The former president’s personal lawyer regularly demonstrated ‘focus issues, memory problems,’ and ‘simple logic failures’ while serving in the White House, it is claimed.
Wolff wrote in Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump: ‘Giuliani was, many around Trump believed, always buzzed if not, in the phrase Steve Bannon made famous in the Trump White House, hopelessly ”in the mumble tank”.
‘Many believed he had the beginnings of senility: focus issues, memory problems, simple logic failures. A vast disorganization of papers and files and tech malfunctions followed in his wake.’
Rudy Giuliani – pictured in Georgia in June 30 – seemed to always be drunk while serving in the Trump Administration, a bombshell new book has claimed
Giuliani served as Trump’s personal lawyer. He recently had his license to practice in Washington DC revoked
The book – an extract of which was obtained by Business Insider – said the former New York City’s mayor’s weight ‘ballooned’ during Trump’s tenure.
Quoting administration insiders, Wolff added that ‘his popping eyes and poorly dyed hair made him seem like a pre-television age character, a past-his-time and gone-to-seed former official hanging around the courthouse steps regaling anyone who will listen with tall tales and wild theories of the shameful secrets and gothic underbelly of politics’.
Trump’s personal lawyer was notoriously filmed with hair dye dripping down his face during a speech at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, where he repeated unfound accusations that the 2020 presidential election had been ‘rigged’.
Wolff said that Giuliani’s life ‘seemed to be singularly sustained by his being on television’ and that he enjoyed unlimited access to Trump by telling him only what he wanted to hear.
He added that Trump’s aides – despite their best efforts – were unable to block Giuliani from showing up at the White House, especially after his boss’s election loss.
Wolff wrote that he was able to see the former president any time he wanted because he was ‘willing to tell Trump not only that he could do whatever he wanted to do, but that he could go beyond this’ and ‘offered Trump vastly more power, right, and discretion than even Trump himself thought possible’.
The book claims that, despite his loyalty, Trump would criticize his lawyer, accusing him of being drunk and saying things that weren’t true.
‘But Rudy would fight,’ Wolff wrote. ‘He could be counted on to fight even when others wouldn’t. And, too, he would work for free.’
Wolff made the claims in Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency
Wolff’s reporting – which Giuliani has not yet commented on – echoes another upcoming book, which claims that Trump enjoyed mocking Giuliani for falling asleep in meetings and would call him ‘pathetic’ after TV appearances.
The attorney ‘rarely complained’ and, instead, ‘seemed to crave the attention,’ according to Michael C.Bender in his new book Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, in an excerpt exclusively by DailyMail.com. The book is out on July 13.
In the 432-page book, that details Trump’s life in the White House Bender reveals details of the president’s relationship with his personal lawyer.
Trump ‘would needle the former mayor for falling asleep on flights and joke about Giuliani’s constant use of his iPad,’ Bender reveals.
‘He’s looking at cartoons,’ Trump would say.
For his part, Giuliani ‘seemed to crave the attention and would often physically jockey with other aides and advisers to sit next to Trump at dinner or on the plane.’
‘Rudy never wanted to be left out,’ one 2016 aide said in the book. ‘If you were ever between Rudy and the president, look out. You were going to get trampled.’
Rudy Giuliani served as Trump’s private attorney
Trump wasn’t always happy with Giuliani, who was willing to go on television at any time to defend the president.
After the release of the now-infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape in the 2016 campaign – where Trump is heard making derogatory comments about women – Giuliani was the only surrogate willing to go on the Sunday morning public affairs shows to defend Trump.
Trump was not grateful.
After the appearances, Giuliani went to LaGuardia Airport, where Trump was waiting on his plane to fly to St. Louis for his second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.
‘When Giuliani climbed up the stairs, he was greeted with huzzahs and high-fives’ from Trump’s aides Hope Hicks, David Bossie, and Stephen Miller.
Michael C.Bender’s book ‘Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost’ is out July 13
When Giuliani walked to the front of the plane, ‘Trump barely looked up from his newspaper. ‘Rudy, you sucked,’ Trump said. ‘You were weak.’ Giuliani looked like he’d simultaneously had the wind knocked out of him and taken a kick to the groin. ‘What the fuck do you want me to do?’ Giuliani said,’ according to the book.
But, at other times, Trump showed his gratitude to Giuliani for his willingness to take the punches.
During one 2017 staff meeting, ‘Trump’s team started complaining about Giuliani’s puzzling television appearances that often veered off-message and created more work for the press shop. Trump barked that at least Giuliani was out there fighting for him. Everyone shut up after that.’
Giuliani, however, was overly confident in his relationship with Trump. The two men knew each other for years when both were making names for themselves on the New York scene – Rudy as a hard-talking, tough prosecutor and Trump as a real estate mogul.
After the election, Giuliani was ‘eager for an administration post and assumed he would get one. He privately told friends that he was a lock to be named secretary of state and publicly told reporters that he was being considered for several positions but wouldn’t say which ones.’
He was under consideration but the vetting process ‘set off alarm bells.’
For example, Giuliani told aides he hadn’t been to the Middle East in more than a year. It turns out he had been to the United Arab Emirates a month earlier.
The book also reveals Trump’s top campaign lawyer Justin Clark called Giuliani a ‘f***ing a**hole’ during a vicious Oval Office phone call with the president after Trump lost the 2020 election.
The heated conversation discussing how the campaign would deal with their allegations of voter fraud led to Trump not trusting Clark and instead believing Giuliani, who was at the center of pushing the wild theories.
‘Less than a week after 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien and Justin Clark, the campaign’s top attorney, had walked Trump through their legal plan, Giuliani was blowing it up—and pushing his way further into the Oval Office,’ it reads.
Donald Trump’s top campaign lawyer Justin Clark
‘On November 13, Trump summoned Clark into the Oval Office as Giuliani, on speakerphone, claimed the campaign had been too slow to contest election results in Georgia.
‘Clark explained that state law required results to be certified before a recount could be requested, which hadn’t yet happened. ‘
“‘They’re lying to you, sir!'” Giuliani shouted. Clark denied anyone was lying.
‘Suddenly, the two men were shouting loud enough that it startled people waiting outside the Oval Office.
‘You’re a f***ing a**hole, Rudy!’ Clark said. Clark had been the campaign’s top attorney for the past year.
‘He’d spent most of 2019 in the weeds of state and national party rulebooks ensuring that it was virtually impossible for any Republican to challenge Trump in a primary.
‘During Trump’s first two years, he ground out long hours as a White House aide.
‘Now, after one phone call from Giuliani, the president was entertaining nonsensical attacks on his ability to read Georgia election code and to give an honest answer to a simple question to the president he’d spent four years trying to reelect.
‘Clark stopped going to the White House.’
The Washington court suspended Giuliani from working as an attorney in the city ‘pending final disposition’ of his New York case
Giuliani had his law license suspended last month by a New York appellate court for making ‘demonstrably false and misleading statements’ while pushing Donald Trump’s election fraud claims and ‘threatening public interest’.
The Washington court suspended Giuliani’s license under D.C. Bar Rule XI for ‘reciprocal discipline’ which reads that attorneys can face discipline in Washington for facing disciplinary action in another state or jurisdiction.
‘Upon learning that an attorney subject to the disciplinary jurisdiction of this Court has been disciplined by another disciplining court, Disciplinary Counsel shall obtain a certified copy of the disciplinary order and file it with this Court,’ Section 11 of D.C. Bar Rule XI reads.
‘In addition, any attorney subject to the disciplinary jurisdiction of this Court, upon being subjected to professional disciplinary action by another disciplining court, shall promptly inform Disciplinary Counsel of such action in writing.’
The order also notes that annual reports on the status of the disciplinary proceedings in New York must be filed.
D.C. Bar rules note that any suspended attorney may be required to provide ‘proof of rehabilitation’ as a condition of reinstatement.
Giuliani was an inactive member of the D.C. Bar when he was suspended on Wednesday and records show he was in good standing.
In its 33-page decision, the New York appellate court wrote: ‘[W]e conclude that there is uncontroverted evidence that respondent communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020.’
It claimed that the former New York mayor threatened ‘public interest’ in his capacity as Trump’s personal attorney and insisted his actions ‘warrant interim suspension from the practice of law.’
Giuliani also faces legal trouble after the FBI seized 18 electronic devices when they raided Giuliani’s New York City home and office in May
UNREDACTED: The 18 electronic devices seized from his Upper East Side home belonged to both Giuliani and those who worked for him, according to an unsealed in a Manhattan Federal Court filing made public last month
Giuliani was one of the figures in Trump’s inner circle who led the former president’s legal challenge to the 2020 presidential election results.
The court said Giuliani made numerous false statements about the voting in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, including that hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots or votes, including from dead people, had been improperly counted.
He argued the vote was riddled with fraud and claimed voting machines had been rigged in favor of Joe Biden.
‘We find that there is evidence of continuing misconduct, the underlying offense is incredibly serious, and the uncontroverted misconduct in itself will likely result in substantial permanent sanctions’, the court said.
Giuliani was admitted to the state bar in New York in 1969 and had a prominent legal career before joining Trump’s team – including working in the Justice Department under Ronald Reagan.
He was named U.S. Attorney in Manhattan in 1983 where he remained through 1989 before running and becoming Mayor of New York City.
The New York State Bar Association announced January 11, 2021 that it was launching an investigation into whether Giuliani’s membership should be revoked, noting his comments on January 6 to a crowd of Trump supporters before they stormed the Capitol.
Although removal from the Bar Association membership does not disbar Giuliani, the ruling in New York does stop him from practicing law in the Empire State.
Giuliani is also facing a slew of legal troubles stemming from his involvement with the Trump administration – specifically his foreign dealings with Ukraine.
The FBI seized 18 electronic devices when they raided Giuliani’s New York City home and office in May, court documents unsealed last month revealed.
The devices that were seized from his Upper East Side home belonged to both Giuliani and those who worked for him, according to Manhattan Federal Court filing recently made public.
Details about the number of devices seized were previously redacted in a letter dated April 29 that was sent by prosecutors to US District Judge Paul Oetken.
Prosecutors had written to the judge asking for a special master – an independent person – to be appointed to determine whether any materials found on the devices may be subject to attorney-client privilege.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating the former New York City mayor’s dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs while working for then-President Trump.
They are specifically examining Giuliani’s interactions with Ukrainian figures and whether he violated a federal law that governs lobbying on behalf of foreign countries or entities without registering with the U.S. government.
The unredacted version of the filing sheds new light on the FBI’s investigative steps.
It detailed how agents had already obtained a secret search warrant back in 2019 for Giuliani’s iCloud account.
Giuliani, a Republican who represented Trump in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has not been charged with a crime.
He has said his activities in Ukraine were conducted on behalf of Trump.
At the time, Giuliani was leading a campaign to press Ukraine for an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter before being elected president.