On Oct. 15, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the personal attorney of Donald J. Trump, released a statement saying that he was refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena and that he would not participate in the impeachment inquiry. The letter was signed by his then-attorney, John Sale, but Giuliani noted that Sale would no longer be representing him, and that, furthermore, he didn’t need an attorney at all. He even said it was “silly” to think he would need one.
Fast forward to one week later, and CNN is reporting that the former mayor is actively shopping for a criminal defense attorney after all. And he’s going to need a good one, because his legal troubles related to his work in Ukraine and his efforts to interfere in the 2020 election are mounting.
Former U.S. attorneys Barbara McQuade and Joyce Vance made the case against Giuliani in a mock indictment outlined at justsecurity.org. Based on the evidence and testimony presented thus far, McQuade and Vance believe there are three serious charges Giuliani could face: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to commit bribery; and contempt of Congress.
McQuade and Vance note that their mock indictment is a “thought experiment” and that they are allowed certain speculation that U.S. attorneys are not afforded when deciding whether to bring charges. Nonetheless, they believe the three crimes in their mock indictment could be proven based on the public evidence alone, although they do caution that there might be information prosecutors are privy to that is not public. They also note that more charges could arise as the investigation unfolds.
The three counts we outline represent just the crimes that could be proven by the public record alone. No doubt, if Giuliani is under investigation, prosecutors would want to probe additional potential crimes relating to his role, if any, in the recent campaign finance scheme charged against his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. It is entirely possible, but not yet clear, that some or all of those counts could be superseded to add Giuliani as a defendant. Prosecutors would also want to consider whether Giuliani was acting as an unregistered foreign agent in violation of the law when, as reported, he asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to intervene in the criminal prosecution of Reza Zarrab, a Turkey-based businessman, for money laundering and violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Of course, a grand jury investigation related to the allegations we focus on here could uncover additional aggravating or mitigating facts that would inform potential charges against Giuliani. Prosecutors would likely use grand jury subpoenas and court orders to obtain Giuliani’s bank records and income tax returns to identify his sources of income and movement of money. Prosecutors would also interview individuals with knowledge of Giuliani’s activity, perhaps including some of the same former and current State Department officials who have been testifying before Congress.
You can read the full indictment here, but the president’s attorney most definitely needs a criminal defense attorney, as do many others involved in this corrupt scheme: Gordon Sondland, Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Kurt Volker, and even Mike Pence. There is little doubt that some of these folks will start flipping to avoid charges. After all, they’ve already seen where the president’s last personal attorney and his 2016 campaign manager ended up.