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Trials & Litigation
Special counsel investigates Giuliani’s drinking habits, possibly to counter Trump defense
“In interviews with friends, associates and former aides,” the New York Times reports, “the consensus was that, more than wholly transforming [Rudy] Giuliani, his drinking had accelerated a change in his existing alchemy.” Photo by Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press.
Special counsel Jack Smith is reportedly asking witnesses whether lawyer Rudy Giuliani was drinking when he advised then-President Donald Trump on election night in 2020 and whether Trump was aware of the lawyer’s alcohol issues.
The drinking issue could affect a possible defense by Trump in Smith’s case alleging that false claims of election fraud were part of a conspiracy to interfere with the certification of election results.
The New York Times has the story, which was noted by Above the Law.
An advice-of-counsel defense would portray Trump as relying on his lawyers when he sought to overturn the election, according to prior reporting by Rolling Stone.
“Trump had an armada of lawyers—some officially representing him, and some simply aligned with him—spreading unhinged conspiracy theories and pushing states to reverse the results,” the article reported.
While Giuliani wasn’t named in the indictment, he appears to be “Co-Conspirator 1,” according to the New York Times.
If Trump received guidance from a lawyer compromised by alcohol, the advice-of-counsel argument would weaken, especially if others had told Trump that he lost the election, according to the New York Times.
Sources who spoke with the New York Times said Giuliani, 79, has had a drinking problem for more than a decade.
“In interviews with friends, associates and former aides,” the New York Times reported, “the consensus was that, more than wholly transforming Mr. Giuliani, his drinking had accelerated a change in his existing alchemy, amplifying qualities that had long burbled within him: conspiracism, gullibility, a weakness for grandeur.”
The drinking marred a client event in May 2016 at the law firm that he had recently joined, according to a book by Geoffrey S. Berman, who later became the Manhattan U.S. attorney in New York City. According to the new York Times’ summary of the book account, Giuliani unleashed “a fire hose of Islamophobic remarks while drunk.”
The New York Times didn’t identify the firm. But the New York Times reported in 2016 that Giuliani was joining Greenberg Traurig. Giuliani announced in May 2018 that he was leaving the firm.
Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman denied that Giuliani has a drinking problem in a statement to the New York Times.
Goodman said he has been with Giuliani on a regular basis for the past year, “and the idea that he is an alcoholic is a flat-out lie.” People are maligning Giuliani because he has the courage to defend Trump, Goodman said.
“The Rudy Giuliani you all see today,” Goodman said, “is the same man who took down the mafia, cleaned up the streets of New York and comforted the nation following 9/11.”
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