Donald Trump’s personal attorney has now hired his own team of attorneys. Rudy Giuliani made the announcement on Twitter saying:
I am represented and assisted by Robert Costello and the Pierce Bainbridge firm in particular , Eric Creizman and Melissa Madrigal.
According to Reuters, “Costello has represented deceased hotel mogul Leona Helmsley and the late George Steinbrenner, who owned the New York Yankees.”
This news comes just a day after Reuters revealed that Lev Parnas, the indicted Ukrainian-American businessman with close ties to Giuliani, is ready to cooperate with investigators.
The hires show how serious Mr. Giuliani is treating the inquiry by federal prosectors in Manhattan, who are investigating whether he violated lobbying laws in his efforts to dig up damaging information about Mr. Trump’s rivals.
The Washington Post also points out that there is growing reason to believe Congressional committees overseeing the impeachment investigation may also have reason to talk to Giuliani:
Transcripts from closed-door depositions with diplomats conducted as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry and released publicly this week show that Giuliani’s name has been mentioned hundreds of times in the sessions.
While Giuliani has been quieter than usual over the last few weeks, he took to Twitter Wednesday to defend himself. But he may not be doing Trump any favors in doing so.
It makes you wonder whether Trump and Giuliani will one day be on opposite sides. As The Atlantic’s David Graham writes, “the president has turned on nearly every aide he’s ever had.”
But separating himself from Giuliani would create a different problem for Trump: To cut him off, he’d have to acknowledge that Giuliani was doing something improper, and the president has refused to admit that anything in the Ukraine scandal was inappropriate.
