It's becoming evident that Rudy Giuliani's core business in the Trump administration has been selling his own access to Donald Trump and Trump’s top officials to international figures needing favors from the U.S. government. That explains why Giuliani has not been billing Donald Trump for his services as he combs the world for conspiracy theories favorable to Trump and damaging to his enemies: He doesn't need to. Giuliani has been doing favors for Trump to curry Trump's favor and interest, then using that as the hook to convince prospective clients that he can use his influence to bend our government in their favor. For, of course, a fee.
A new Washington Post report now reveals that as Giuliani has been churning away at his Biden conspiracies, in Ukraine he's been using those contacts as business opportunities. The Post reports that Giuliani drafted an arrangement last February to represent Ukrainian prosecutor Yuri Lutsenko, for at least $200,000, and assist in Ukrainian efforts to recover allegedly stolen Ukrainian funds. The negotiations also proposed payments to Fox News analysts and lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova for the same services. A separate negotiation would have had the three lawyers being paid $300,000 directly by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.
Neither agreement was ever signed, but it was clear what Giuliani was expected to bring to the table. "[I]n an interview with the publication Ukrainian Truth this month, Lutsenko described how he was eager for Giuliani to help him get a meeting with the U.S. attorney general," says the Post, which Giuliani agreed he could do. But after months of delays, Giuliani then insisted that it would be impossible to arrange the meeting with new Trump Attorney General William Barr unless Lutsenko paid a lobbyist firm to procure it. Lutsenko was instrumental in the scheme to oust U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, condemning her in an interview with Giuliani-favored Hill columnist John Solomon.
All of this was happening simultaneous to Giuliani, Toensing, and diGenova’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials for "investigations" of Joe Biden and his family. It was also happening as Giuliani's now-indicted associates were allegedly making illegal campaign donations to former Congressman Pete Sessions, and as Giuliani and the pair were pressuring for the removal of Yovanovitch. It happened as Giuliani's associate, Lev Parnas, was assisting Rep. Devin Nunes in meeting with disgraced Ukrainian ex-prosecutor Victor Shokin in Vienna, also in an attempt to procure Biden "dirt."
This isn't the only instance of Giuliani using his influence with Trump and Barr as a selling point for a prospective client. Giuliani also lobbied the Trump Justice Department to drop criminal charges against a Venezuelan energy executive who had been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a billion-dollar money laundering scheme.
Giuliani also provided services to Reza Zarrab, the "ringleader of a crime organization designed to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran" operating out of Trump Towers Istanbul: In an Oval Office meeting, Giuliani asked for a "prisoner swap" of the U.S.-held Zarrab for an American, Pastor Andrew Brunson, who had been seized by Turkey on bizarre and fictional charges. (Trump actually asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to drop charges against Zarrab during the meeting, but Tillerson refused.)
Rudy Giuliani's core business, then, is not providing legal services to Donald Trump. It is selling his own access to Trump to the world's wealthiest criminals and to people needing specific, important personal favors from Trump and Attorney General Barr's Department of Justice. Giuliani's work on Trump's favored conspiracy theories exonerating Russia and implicating potential election opponent Biden may solely be Giuliani's means of maintaining the close connections to Trump needed to sell his own services to criminals and governments elsewhere.