Rudy Giuliani won’t face criminal charges in foreign lobbying case
Rudy Giuliani won’t face criminal charges in foreign lobbying case.
Rudy Giuliani won’t face criminal charges in foreign lobbying case.
Rudy Giuliani won’t face criminal charges in foreign lobbying case.
JIM WATSON/THE TIMES-PICAYUNEFormer New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani listens during a news conference on former U.S. Rep. Bill Jefferson’s federal criminal indictment in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2010. Giuliani, who has been under investigation for possible campaign finance violations in the 2008 presidential race, faces a federal indictment Wednesday concerning foreign lobbying after failing to pay more than $500,000 in lobbying fees to a foreign government. (AP Photo/JIM WATSON)
Jim Watson, the senior vice president and deputy chief of staff in the Office of Government Ethics, said Giuliani’s case is “not about criminality.”
But he said the ethics case could be different from any other because Giuliani was acting as an independent contractor in lobbying for a foreign client, and he was paid through a third party rather than directly by his employer.
The indictment on federal criminal charges against Giuliani follows a grand jury’s indictment of another former mayor, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and a separate indictment brought against former congressman Mark Foley and former lobbyist Linda Tripp — who is indicted along with Kerik.
Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Caputo, said he was not available for an interview Tuesday or Wednesday and couldn’t discuss the nature or timing of the criminal investigation.
“I know that if I were to tell you that he was being investigated or that there was some basis to think that he might — that he would be investigated, it would be a very different story. That’s because I want to respect his privacy,” Caputo said.
“He did what he did, and he took an action on behalf of a client. The client paid him, the client didn’t have to pay him. The client didn’t have to use him. The client didn’t have to have him travel anywhere else. This isn’t about criminality.”
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