31
with Qatar around 2005 at a time when
the Gulf state’s security forces were under
scrutiny for letting the Sept. 11 master-
mind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed slip
away from the FBI in 1996.
Buoyed by the wave of goodwill and
his celebrity, he launched a bid for the
2008 Republican presidential nomina-
tion. He quickly cemented himself as the
early front runner, with 34% of likely Re-
publican voters saying they would vote
for him in a March 2007 poll. But his run
imploded in the wake of questions about
his foreign lobbying and liberal positions
on social issues. His abrasive style and
fixation on terrorism didn’t help, lead-
ing Biden to deliver the now famous line
that there were only three things Giuliani
ever mentioned in a sentence: “A noun, a
verb and 9/11.”
After his run for the ultimate posi-
tion of power failed, he seemed to fade
from the headlines and turned back to
making money. In his business as an in-
ternational security consultant, he again
took on controversial clients, including a
Turkish gold trader accused of launder-
ing Iranian money. He took several trips
to Russia and former Soviet countries
through TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, a
secretive international consulting com-
pany that has provided image consulting
to Russian oligarchs and others close to
the Kremlin.
Having failed to win the White House
himself, Giuliani may have been as sur-
prised as anyone when his old friend
Donald Trump’s unexpected election
offered him proximity to Oval Office.
Giuliani and Trump knew each other for
decades. Both were raised in the outer
boroughs of New York City, made their
names in Manhattan, sought the limelight
early in their careers and became regulars
in New York’s gossip pages.
In 2000, at the Inner Circle dinner, a
rollicking convention of big names and
comedians, Giuliani wore a lavender
dress and blond wig for a spoof video in
which Trump leers at Giuliani and says,
“You know, you’re really beautiful.” When
Giuliani sprays perfume on his chest,
Trump rubs his face in it. “Oh you dirty
boy,” Giuliani says in a high-pitched voice,
and slaps him.
Giuliani did not publicly endorse
Trump until two weeks before the New
York State Republican primary. But when
he did, he was all in. It was Giuliani who
went on all five Sunday-morning shows
to defend Trump after the Oct. 7, 2016,
release of a recording of Trump talking
about grabbing women by their genitals.
Ironically his current position as unof-
ficial envoy of the President came about
only when he didn’t get the Administra-
tion job he had hoped for. After Trump’s
election, Giuliani turned down top spots
at the Justice Department and the De-
partment of Homeland Security, hoping
instead to be named Trump’s Secretary
of State. Giuliani lobbied hard for the po-
sition, touting as credentials his 150 for-
eign trips to more than 80 countries as a
globe trotting consultant. But Trump andhis son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were con-
cerned that Giuliani’s celebrity would
make him unmanageable at State. When
it became clear Giuliani wasn’t going to
get the job, he withdrew from consider-
ation, saying he “could play a better role
being on the outside and continuing to
be his close friend and adviser.”
That role was a boon for Giuliani fi-
nancially, but he still had the itch for
real power. He saw an opportunity in
Trump’s frustration with his legal team’s
failure to protect him in the Russia in-
vestigation. For more than a year, Trump
had been fuming, “I don’t have a law-
yer,” invoking the memory of Roy Cohn,
the notoriously ruthless New York attor-
ney and power broker, according to the
Mueller report. Trump said he wanted
“someone who got things done.” In Gi-
uliani, who had taken to television news
shows to repeatedly attack Mueller, he
found his Roy Cohn.
For months, Giuliani had a good run
under Trump. Even while many close to
the President warned that relying on Gi-
uliani could be his downfall, the former
mayor was able to carry out both his free-
wheeling deals and Trump’s wishes with-
out restraints. As White House advisers
came and went in a steady stream of fir-
ings and resignations, Giuliani endured.
But it was ultimately his full-throttle pur-
suit of the thinly sourced Ukraine scandal
that may have historic consequences for
him, the President and the country.
In August 2018, Lev Parnas and Igor
Fruman, a pair of Soviet émigrés basedSEPT. 12, 2001
Giuliani became a figure of resilience
after the Sept. 11 attacksSEPT. 20, 2019
Giuliani and his client Lev Parnas on
Sept. 20 at the Trump hotel in D.C.