Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is “close to broke” but former President Donald Trump has done nothing to help his longtime confidante cover his rising legal costs, according to The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman.
Trump reportedly stiffed Giuliani on legal fees after his failed crusade to overturn the election, paying him only for expense reimbursements. But Giuliani now faces his own legal issues amid a federal investigation by prosecutors at the Southern District of New York, which Giuliani once led himself, as well as multiple lawsuits stemming from his lies about the election.
Trump, meanwhile, has used his election conspiracy theories to build a war chest of over $100 million in the first half of this year, far more than any Republican, according to the Times.
On behalf of the millions of men and women who share my outrage and want me to continue to fight for the truth,” Trump said in a statement, “I am grateful for your support.”
Giuliani allies “aghast” at Trump money:
Giuliani’s allies are “aghast that Trump isn’t helping Giuliani with legal fees,” Haberman reported after the Times covered Trump’s massive financial haul.
“Giuliani’s friends say he is saying he is close to broke,” she wrote.
But Trump’s aides “have been clear that they see no mechanism for paying Giuliani’s legal bills that isn’t problematic for Trump,” she added.
Trump’s team is also apparently unhappy with his post-election legal work.
“They think Giuliani took actions a lawyer should have known were problematic, even if the client wanted it,” she tweeted.
Giuliani “willing to go to jail”:
Giuliani told NBC New York over the weekend that he is “willing to go to jail” even as he insisted he is innocent. Investigators are reportedly looking at whether Giuliani illegally lobbied for Ukrainian officials and oligarchs while representing Trump.
"I committed no crime, and if you think I committed a crime, you're probably really stupid, because you don't know who I am," he said. "Is the guy who put the mafia in jail, terrorists in jail, Ed Koch's commissioners in jail, and the worst people on Wall Street — I'm not going to file (a form)? I mean, that's just crazy.”
Giuliani alleged that the FBI “lie” and “cheat.”
"I am more than willing to go to jail if they want to put me in jail. And if they do, they're going to suffer the consequences in heaven," he said. "I'm not, I didn't do anything wrong."