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Former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen has claimed that the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, can likely be manipulated by Russia because he is “ drunk all the time. ”
Cohen made the comments during an interview on MSNBC’s The Beat on Friday.
During the segment, Cohen was asked whether or not he believed that the Russians were using the former mayor of New York City as a “tool.”
“Do you think Rudy Giuliani is being used as a tool and hacking by the Russians, whether or not he passes a legal line and do you think that is wrong?” asked host Ari Melber.
In response, Cohen said: ‘Of course it’s wrong and the answer is yes. Rudy is being played by the Russians.
“It is 100 percent susceptible to being used by Russians because … disinformation runs straight at President Trump like a child running at a parent:” Look what I’ve got. Look what I have “.
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Former Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen (right) has claimed that the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, can likely be manipulated by Russia because he is “ drunk all the time. ”
Cohen said he has witnessed Giuliani (pictured) “drinking to the point like he’s a high school drunk.” Cohen added: ‘And it makes him touchy. He takes the information he gets and gives it to the president. ‘
Let’s not forget that I was in Trump’s office when Roger Stone contacted Mr. Trump at the time to tell him about the emails that were going to be deleted and he finally found out several days later that they were the [John] Podesta emails.
Cohen claimed that “Trump talks and behaves like the boss of the mob and this is what he is doing.”
He was referring to the way his campaign has gathered information about his rival Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, before the Nov.3 election.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that intelligence agencies had warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of a Russian-influenced operation.
The newspaper, citing four former officials, said the assessment was based on information including intercepted communications showing Giuliani had been in contact with people linked to Russian intelligence.
The newspaper said that national security adviser Robert O’Brien had warned Trump that the information Giuliani brought from Ukraine should be considered tainted by Russia, but that Trump ignored the warning.
Cohen said Trump is using Giuliani as a soldier, “but the problem here is that Rudy is not a soldier.”
“Rudy is drunk all the time, which is a big problem and that’s what makes him touchy because his faculties are gone. He’s being crazy, ” Cohen said.
Melber then asked, ‘As a journalist, I’m asking: Are you sharing an opinion or observation as if you’ve seen him drink X amount?’
“No, no, I’ve seen him drink to the point like he’s a high school drunk,” Cohen said.
And it makes him susceptible. You take the information you get and provide it to the president and just because Rudy, who used to be considered … a true litigator and was considered the mayor of the United States, is now just a joke. And he takes it straight to Trump and Trump listens to him. ‘
Frustration over Giuliani in the west wing has long been rampant, with those surrounding the president cautiously watching Giuliani’s efforts to bring down the Bidens and fearful that they may get back with the president.
The Washington Post said that national security adviser Robert O’Brien had warned Trump that information that Giuliani (pictured, sitting next to Chris Christie on Sept. 27) brought from Ukraine should be considered tainted by Russia.
Cohen said he has seen Giuliani (in the December 2019 photo) ‘drink to the point like he’s a high school drunk.’ Cohen added: ‘And it makes him touchy. He takes the information he gets and gives it to the president. ‘
Giuliani was instrumental in promoting a discredited theory that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 elections.
Giuliani has traveled abroad in search of dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker whom US officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential candidate.
However, Giuliani says foreign sources did not provide Hunter Biden’s emails. He says a laptop containing the emails and the intimate photos was simply dumped at a Delaware repair shop and the store owner approached Giuliani’s attorney.
That hasn’t stopped the FBI from investigating whether the emails are part of a foreign influence operation. The emails have come as US officials warn that Russia, which backed the Trump campaign in 2016 by hacking Democratic emails and a covert campaign on social media, is interfering again this year.
The latest episode with Giuliani underscores the risk it poses to a White House that spent years confronted by a federal investigation into whether Trump associates had coordinated with Russia.
Far from distancing himself from Giuliani, Trump has made the alleged Hunter Biden emails one of his main talking points as he tries to disparage his Democratic rival.
The New York Post began running stories about the emails on Wednesday, saying it had obtained them from Giuliani.
The newspaper said Hunter’s emails were found on a laptop that an unidentified man had left for repair at a Delaware repair shop and never picked it up.
They said the store owner gave it to the FBI, but he also made a copy of the hard drive and gave it to Giuliani’s lawyer.
A 2015 email published by the Post purported to show a top adviser to Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where Hunter held a board position, thanking Biden for giving him the opportunity to meet his father when Major Biden left. served as vice president of the United States.
Biden’s campaign and Hunter’s attorney said they had no record of such a meeting taking place. They have not addressed the authenticity of the emails.
Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Friday. But in an interview Thursday with a SiriusXM show, he claimed that Hunter had left the laptop, that the material was not pirated, and that the laptop was obtained legally.
He said on Fox News Friday that the information on the laptop was “authentic as hell.”
The FBI is investigating whether the emails are linked to a foreign influence operation, according to a person who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity with the AP. The exact scope of what was being investigated was unclear.
Giuliani says the emails and intimate photos of Hunter Biden were obtained from a laptop that was abandoned in a Delaware repair shop. Giuliani claimed that the store owner contacted Giuliani’s lawyer
But the report that the intelligence agencies have been concerned about Giuliani is not surprising.
Andrii Derkach, the Ukrainian MP who is one of Giuliani’s main contacts, was mentioned in an August intelligence assessment that described a concerted Russian effort to discredit Biden.
A Treasury Department sanction announcement last month characterized Derkach as an “active Russian agent for more than a decade.”
Derkach in recent months has leaked recordings of calls that Biden had as vice president with the then leader of Ukraine, the audio that Biden’s campaign maintains is heavily edited. Despite his own administration’s warnings about Derkach, Trump has promoted those recordings on Twitter.
Giuliani has had no qualms about discussing his overseas contacts, including with Derkach. In December, Derkach posted photos of him and Giuliani meeting in Kiev on his Facebook page.
Giulani’s efforts to get Ukraine to launch investigations into the Bidens helped create the impeachment case against Trump.
Even critics in the president’s orbit recognize Giuliani as a force in Trump’s defense during the special counsel’s extensive Russia probe.
The investigation detailed extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, but did not allege a criminal conspiracy between the two to tip the 2016 election.
However, the effort to undermine Robert Mueller brought Giuliani to Ukraine, which many feel led directly to Trump’s impeachment. He was acquitted by the Senate in February.
After struggling for a long time to find a wire-ready defender, Trump has mostly appreciated Giuliani’s attack dog style and, for a time, his volleys against Mueller appeared to play a role in lowering the approval ratings of the special prosecutor.
But on other occasions, the president has privately expressed dismay at Giuliani’s scattered style.
Some around Trump fear the case against young Biden has weakened because Giuliani has become his face.
The Trump campaign has been pushing corruption allegations against the Bidens for more than a year, and the president advanced the widely discredited theory that the vice president tried to oust Ukraine’s chief prosecutor to protect his son from scrutiny.
While Trump associates believe it can be argued that Hunter got rich by selling access to his father, they fear that Giuliani’s lack of credibility will cause the allegations to implode.
