| 摘要 | The president of the United States ought not outsource the nation’s foreign policy to his shady lobbyist-lawyer.
Yet that’s exactly what President Trump has done, it seems. Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, a revolving-door lobbyist-lawyer, has gone to Ukraine, digging up dirt on political appointees while also acting as a liaison between foreign governments and Trump. But at the same time, Giuliani reportedly had consulting clients who were chasing business with Ukraine’s government.
Trump’s use of Giuliani came to light when the White House released the rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In the July phone call, Zelensky brought up Giuliani, at which point Trump sang Giuliani’s praises to Zelensky, adding, “I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call.”
In short, Trump was using Giuliani as a freelance diplomat. This is the typical Trumpian blurring of lines, where he doesn’t see a distinction between his personal affairs and those of the nation.
That isn’t to say these lines haven’t been blurred before. John F. Kennedy got away with naming his brother as the attorney general, and Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, called himself Obama’s “wingman.”
But outsourcing our foreign policy to a lobbyist-lawyer is particularly foolish when the lobbyist-lawyer comes with his own conflicts of interest.
Giuliani has for a few years represented an energy partnership consisting of two Soviet emigrés.* The three, according to the Associated Press, were trying to land a deal to sell natural gas to a state-owned oil company in Ukraine. Step One in this plan was replacing the government-picked management of the company.
Part of the sales pitch to Ukraine’s government, according to the Associated Press, was to play up the trio’s ties to the Trump administration. Citing two sources who spoke to Favorov, the AP has reported that Florida businessman Harry Sargeant told Andrew Favorov, an executive at the Ukranian company, “that he regularly meets with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and that the gas-sales plan had the president’s full support.”
Sargeant’s attorney denies this account.
Giuliani has denied working on the Ukraine issue, but he previously identified the Soviet emigrés as his clients.
But the European energy stuff isn’t Giuliani’s side-hustle. It’s his full-time hustle. The freelance diplomacy for the U.S. is a piece of Giuliani’s international-consultant hustle. Here’s one telling detail: He has denied that Trump, through any avenue, has covered all his travels around Europe. Further, Giuliani is representing Trump pro bono, according to his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer.
This ought to set off alarms in the White House. There’s a rule of thumb Trump needs to understand, especially after the mess with his since-convicted campaign chairman Paul Manafort: If you’re not paying for the service, you’re not the customer — you’re the product.
Manafort was working for Putin allies in Ukraine, and Trump was his deliverable. Giuliani is working for oil magnates hustling around the former Soviet Union, and the U.S. government is his deliverable.
Giuliani isn’t giving a good deal to Trump. He seems to be selling his access to Trump. That is to say, he is using Trump. Yet Trump is lending Giuliani the authority of the United States of America.
Giuliani has worked in quasi-lobbying for more than a decade. In 2005, he joined the venerable law-and-lobbying firm Bracewell & Patterson, which soon renamed itself as Bracewell & Giuliani. In 2016, Giuliani left Bracewell for Greenberg Traurig, another law-and-lobbying firm.
Giuliani has had foreign clients, and at least one Ukrainian client called him their “lobbyist.” Giuliani, though, has never registered as a foreign agent, and he rejects the “lobbyist” label.
If we can’t agree exactly what to call Giuliani, we should at least agree that Trump should stop asking foreign leaders to take his call. — UPDATE: This story has been updated to add Sargeant’s denial, and more detail on the Associated Press’s reporting. |
