Rudy Giuliani recently underwent questioning by Jan. 6 prosecutors about former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his election loss.
The ex-New York City mayor appeared in what some legal experts say may have been an audition for prosecutors in hopes of winning immunity in exchange for testimony against Trump or others. But it’s not known if special counsel Jack Smith sees Giuliani as a potentially useful witness against Trump, or a target in his own right.
“He’s trying to cut a deal and time is very short,” said Harry Litman, a former prosecutor and MSNBC legal analyst.
Giuliani was tight-lipped about the interview, which several reports said took place in the past few weeks.
“The appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner,” Ted Goodman, a lawyer for Giuliani, said in a statement.
As Trump’s personal lawyer, Giuliani was a key figure in the effort to overturn the election in the weeks after Trump lost to President Joe Biden in November 2020.
Trump’s legal team that included Giuliani filed myriad spurious lawsuits in battleground states raising unsupported claims of vast election fraud even though Republican election officials and even Attorney General William Barr derided the claims as laughable.
Giuliani also reportedly coordinated efforts to gin up bogus slates of pro-Trump electors from states that Biden won.
Prosecutors reportedly asked Giuliani about his work with fellow pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and John Eastman, who is believed to be a target of the federal probe.
They also quizzed him about the situation at the Willard Hotel in Washington, where Trump allies gathered to plan for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Giuliani interview is a fresh sign that Smith is doggedly scrutinizing Trump and others for potential crimes linked to his effort to overturn the election and the Jan. 6 attack.
Smith already made Trump the first former president to be federally indicted by charging him with mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice by defying a subpoena for their return.
Giuliani could also be a target in the Georgia criminal investigation launched by prosecutors in Atlanta’s Fulton County into Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the Peach State.
He is facing a defamation suit filed by two Atlanta election workers whom he falsely accused of ballot fraud.
Giuliani has also been sued for sexual harassment by a media aide who says he forced her to have sex with him to keep her job and ordered her to perform sex acts during phone conversations with Trump.
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