On Wednesday, after mostly staying out of the news since his client, former president Donald J. Trump, left office, Rudy Giuliani was pulled back in. The feds descended upon his New York City home and office, stepping up a criminal investigation into his dealings with Ukraine. Later in the day, the former NYC mayor tried to spin it — and given that he’s almost cosmically doomed to inventive failure, it couldn’t help but seem perfectly pathetic.
As per The New York Post, Giuliani tried two things. He tried to pin the blame for the investigation on “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — a term often used by Republican lawmakers and pundits whenever Trump came under scrutiny by those not on his side. And he tried another favorite Trumpist move: invoke the unholy name of Hunter Biden.
In a statement released by his own lawyer, Giuliani claimed that he offered, “on several occasions,” federal investigators copies of Hunter Biden’s hard drives. They “steadfastly declined” them. “Keep in mind that the agents could not read the physical hard drives without plugging them in, but they took Mr. Giuliani’s word that the hard drives were copies of Hunter Biden’s hard drive and did not contain anything pertaining to Mr. Giuliani,” the statement read. “Their reliance on Mr. Giuliani’s credibility tells you everything you need to know about this case.”
Or maybe it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know? It’s a pretty unconvincing piece of spin, even for a Trump loyalist. But what would you expect from someone whose November was more disastrous than some people’s whole lives?
The Giuliani investigation involves his alleged attempts to dig up dirt on the current president’s son, and it also involved issuing a grand jury subpoena to his executive assistant, as well as searching the Washington-area home of Victoria Toensing, a lawyer close to him who had several dealings with Ukrainian officials.
All in all, today marked a big step down from the Giuliani of 20 years ago. Once upon a time he earned raves, even multiple SNL stints, for his handling of the September 11 attacks. Today his New York City residence and office were raided, and mere months after he spread election misinformation and attempted to subvert the will of the American people. There can be second acts to American lives, but sometimes they ain’t pretty.
(Via The New York Post)