Giuliani's foreign work complicates candidacy for top post

[webfact]

Giuliani's foreign work complicates candidacy for top post

By STEPHEN BRAUN and CHAD DAY

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rudy Giuliani, President-elect Donald Trump's top candidate for top diplomat, has advised foreign political figures and worked for lobbying and security firms whose clients have had complicated relationships with the U.S. government.

 

While not personally involved in lobbying, Giuliani spent years at firms which represented governments and multinational companies, some of which had interests that diverged from those of the United States. He also made speeches demanding the State Department remove an Iranian opposition group from a U.S. terror blacklist.

 

As the former New York mayor waits to discover if he is Trump's choice for secretary of state, Giuliani's extensive consulting and advising work for foreign and corporate clients could expose him to the same criticisms he raised about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ties to foreign governments and corporations that had donated to her family charity, the Clinton Foundation.

 

"What she did with the Clinton Foundation and all the favors the State Department did for hundreds of millions of dollars is, to me, clear violation of the conflict of interest law," Giuliani told CNN in August.

 

But when Clinton was secretary of state, she was the one concerned about Giuliani after he took a trip to Belgrade and met with leaders of a Serbian political party once allied with Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

 

"This is outrageous," Clinton wrote in an April 2012 email after her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, forwarded a copy of an Associated Press story about Giuliani's meeting with Serbian Progressive Party officials. Milosevic, accused of war crimes for his conduct in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, died in prison a decade ago.

 

As Giuliani's visit became known, the U.S. embassy in Belgrade issued a statement saying it wasn't taking sides in Serbia's elections. The leader of the party that Giuliani met, Aleksandar Vucic, now heads Serbia's government.

 

A longtime associate defended Giuliani's extensive international work Wednesday, saying the former mayor currently has only one international security contract. It is with the government of Colombia, said the associate, who asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak officially for the former mayor. He said Giuliani would provide lengthy public disclosure of his business interests, if nominated.

 

Giuliani did not respond to requests, made through his associate, to speak to the AP. In an interview Tuesday with the New York Times, Giuliani said he never lobbied for any interests, foreign or otherwise. He defended his consulting firm's work in the Persian Gulf monarchy of Qatar and the money he received for supporting the Mujahedin-e Khalq, the Iranian dissident group, even as it was a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

 

Giuliani said that he did consulting work for TransCanada, the company pushing for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which the State Department would have a role in approving. But Giuliani said he had no involvement in that effort. He said his work for TransCanada focused on a planned natural gas facility in New York that never materialized.

 

"I have friends all over the world," Giuliani said. "This is not a new thing for me. When you become the mayor, you become interested in foreign policy. When I left, my major work was legal and security around the world."

 

For most of 2016, Giuliani worked as a senior adviser and head of the cybersecurity and crisis management division at lobbying giant Greenberg Traurig. At the same time, he played a prominent role as Trump's television and political rally supporter. Giuliani took a leave of absence from the firm in October to work full-time for Trump.

 

During Giuliani's tenure, Greenberg Traurig's lawyers worked for a host of foreign clients, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, which has been accused of eroding democracy. It also worked for a Belarusian potash firm suspected by several U.S. senators of evading Treasury Department sanctions. Other clients at the time included Mexico's agriculture agency, a Libyan think-tank, the governments of Panama and East Timor, and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, according to federal foreign agent filings with the Justice Department.

 

Giuliani's associate said he has not met any foreign officials for Greenberg Traurig and isn't involved with the firm's government lobbying practice.

 

Giuliani has never registered with the government as a lobbyist. Instead, he acted abroad as a security consultant and occasional political adviser, even though his actions sometimes sought to influence U.S. policy.

 

Giuliani joined prominent politicians— Democrats and Republicans, many of them paid— in petitioning the State Department to delist Iran's MEK, which was linked to assassinations of at least six Americans in the 1970s and a string of attacks against the Iranian government. When the group was finally taken off the terror list in 2012, by Clinton's State Department, U.S. officials said it hadn't committed any acts of terrorism in at least a decade.

 

"My ties to them are very open," Giuliani told The Times.

 

His work included speeches in Washington and Berlin and signing a letter along with influential former government officials, including James Jones, President Barack Obama's onetime national security adviser. Another signature: Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, another in contention to become Trump's secretary of state.

 

If nominated, Giuliani would have to describe his finances much like he did during his 2007 presidential campaign. The disclosure he filed for that campaign showed he was already a multimillionaire with assets between $18 million and $70 million.

 

Giuliani was a frequent critic of Clinton's paid speeches to special interests during her campaign against Trump. But Giuliani's own foray into the lecture circuit in the mid-2000s could pose similar potential ethics problems.

 

From late 2005 through early 2007, Giuliani made more than 100 paid speeches— most for $100,000 each_ to oil companies, investment banks and Wall Street firms, including Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Giuliani earned $9.2 million for the speeches over a 15-month period, according to his presidential financial disclosure.

 

Giuliani, who founded his global management firm, Giuliani Partners, in 2002, refused to divulge his firm's clients when he ran for president.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-11-17

[kamahele]

I watched him night after night on the news slamming The Clinton Foundation for taking money to feed starving children and prevent HIV from the same countries he was accepting money from to stuff into his own pockets. No, he's not a hypocrite.

[atyclb]

Firefighters’ Union Takes Ax to Giuliani’s 9/11 Acclaim

http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/07/12/cq_3065.html

[atyclb]

 

[Opl]

37 minutes ago, atyclb said:

Firefighters’ Union Takes Ax to Giuliani’s 9/11 Acclaim

http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/07/12/cq_3065.html

 

Thank you for sharing these links -

" “Rudy Giuliani has used a horrible event, Sept. 11, 2001, to create a carefully crafted persona,” IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger stated in the film’s introduction. But the fact is, what Rudy portrays is not a full picture of the decisions made that led, in our view, to the unnecessary deaths of our FDNY members and the attempt to stop the dignified recovery of those lost.”" 

[Prbkk]

So his foreign business dealings are an obstacle but the fact that he's a bit of a nutter , no problem. Got it.

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, kamahele said:

I watched him night after night on the news slamming The Clinton Foundation for taking money to feed starving children and prevent HIV from the same countries he was accepting money from to stuff into his own pockets. No, he's not a hypocrite.

At least he is not like the guy in the enclosed picture who has that " Yes I am your bit*h" look on his face. He and the other guy are now part of the Trump fan club. 

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/trump-administration-will-ban-lobbyists-enact-five-year-lobbying-ban-after-leaving-government/ar-AAkopnA?li=AAggNb9

Edited November 17, 2016 by elgordo38

[elgordo38]

35 minutes ago, Prbkk said:

So his foreign business dealings are an obstacle but the fact that he's a bit of a nutter , no problem. Got it.

Fits the job perfectly. Next nutter. 

[elgordo38]

47 minutes ago, Opl said:

 

Thank you for sharing these links -

" “Rudy Giuliani has used a horrible event, Sept. 11, 2001, to create a carefully crafted persona,” IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger stated in the film’s introduction. But the fact is, what Rudy portrays is not a full picture of the decisions made that led, in our view, to the unnecessary deaths of our FDNY members and the attempt to stop the dignified recovery of those lost.”" 

I know he worked for Mexico years ago when I lived there. As I remember he got a bag of money for training somebody there. The guy does have connections. 

[elgordo38]

Have these people no shame.!!!

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/workers-pry-gold-trump-place-name-off-apartment-buildings/ar-AAkplSD?li=AAggFp5

[Ulic]

Giuliani - Let those who have not sinned cast the first stone, along with, the pot calling the kettle black.  Very hard to run/work for an international company that deals with third world/ developing companies that would not had some conflicts of interest. Giuliani cast many stones, .....now he is on the receiving end. Oh well. Next candidate.  

[lannarebirth]

 

Anyhow, Giuliani or Bolton terrible candidates for the job. I understand Romney may be in the running and I think that would be a better choice.. Now pick a blue dog Democrat to run the DoD and the heavy hitter foreign policy picks are done.

[NovaBlue05]

Bolton is a chickenhawk, neocon on steroids who dreams about invading Iran.....or rather having the young men and women in the US do it on his behalf. Giuliani might be pre-maturely senile and has been groping to relive his post-9/11 adulation for 16 years now.  They used to say he would be the next AG.  Hillary wouldn't sleep a wink waiting for the knock on her door if that happened.

 

Romney would seem quite a balanced selection in comparison to either if Trump and he can actually forget the vitriol of the last few months

[Scott]

Off-topic post and replies removed.   The topic is about Guliani. 

[Linzz]

I always thought he looked like Colonel Klink, (not referencing Nazis although I'm sure some will).

[elgordo38]

Romney is aptly qualified for the department of scams. What a prince of a guy a real Mormon??? Course that would not stop him everybody lies and cheats today your almost forced to. 

Investigation: Mitt Romney's Offshore Accounts, Tax Loopholes, and ...

www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/.../investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accou...

1.  
2.  

A person who worked for Mitt Romney at the consulting firm Bain and Co. in 1977 ... The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and ...

[ilostmypassword]

And here's an interesting take on Giuliani's and Christie's travails:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-played-rudy-giuliani-chris-christie-deserve-article-1.2879521