Giuliani's law firm got rid of him. Trump should do the same.

There could be only one justification for keeping Rudy Giuliani on his legal team, and that would be a strategy to create as much public confusion as possible.   Every day, Rudy proves, not only that he "doesn't have all the facts straight," as Trump so benignly put it;   but, in truth, Giuliani is a disaster, creating more legal trouble for Trump -- every time he speaks.

The latest debacle concerns the AT-T payment to Michael Cohen of $600,000 in monthly payments in 2017, ostensibly for "insights" into the Trump administration's positions on telecom regulations, tax reform and other issues.  AT-T has acknowledged the payments.  They were interviewed by the Mueller investigators months ago, so they have nothing legal to hide and only their public reputation to consider at this point.

The AT-T CEO now says that paying Cohen was a "serious misjudgment."  The company's head of lobbying and external marketing will be leaving the company as a result.  But, here's the situation for AT-T when Trump won the election.   They were in negotiations on a merger with Time-Warner, which is opposed by the Justice Department on anti-trust grounds.   Also, on the campaign trail, Trump had been vociferously opposed to it.    As things have moved along to now, the Justice Department sued to stop the merger;   the case has been tried and the judge's verdict is awaited.

Back to AT-T hiring Michael Cohen.   According to New York Times reporting, AT-T has its own "platoon of lobbyists with deep connections to both sides of the aisle."   They paid $4.1 million in lobbying fees to nearly 3o firms through the first three months of this year.  But Michael Cohen had an advantage in the AT-T case:  "No one was as close to Mr. Trump as Mr. Cohen," and he had approached them about being a consultant.

So here's the situation, when Rudy spoke about Trump and the case on TV.

   1.  Trump repeatedly emphasized his opposition to the merger on the campaign trail, citing it as an example of "the swamp" in Washington.
   2.  AT-T says that Cohen did not do any lobbying for the money they paid him, and that the contract was a mistake that should never have been made.
   3.  Time-Warner says it was not aware of AT-T's contract with Cohen.
   4.  The Justice Department entered an anti-trust lawsuit to stop the merger on November 20, 2017,  well after Jeff Sessions had become Attorney General.
   5.  Kellyanne Conway said last year that the White House was not involved in the Justice Department's review of the anti-trust case.
   6.  AT-T and Time-Warner challenged Justice's calling it anti-trust, since the two companies do not currently compete.  That, apparently, is the issue on which the anti-trust lawsuit rests:   whether it can be considered anti-trust, since the merger supposedly does not reduce competition.
   7.  Some have suggested a political motivation since Time-Warner owns CNN, the television network that President Trump has most vociferously attacked.
   8.  The judge in the U.S. District Court trial, Richard J. Leon, has been strict in keeping politics out of the case, according to the New York Times, noting that the trial was focused on anti-trust laws, and "whether the merger would violate competition policies and harm consumers."
   9.  The trial of the lawsuit has been completed and the judge's decision is awaited.

So, Trump was opposed --  but all statements, if true, support the premise that he did not influence either the Justice Department or the trial and that it was conducted strictly as a non-political, anti-trust case.   That is exactly as it should be.   The president should not interfere or even discuss with the DoJ cases that are under consideration or investigation.

Now, let's look at what Rudy Giuliani has said, as reported by CBS News.

1.  After Trump had claimed to reporters that he didn't know anything about the $130,000 Cohen paid in hush money, Giuliani went on Sean Hannity's show and said that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment.

2.   Giuliani then embellished his story by saying that it definitely was not a campaign contribution, because the payment would have been paid anyway, whether or not Trump was running for president.   Actually, the hush money was to protect his family from embarrassment by a personal and false allegation.
     They had to deny it had anything to do with the campaign, because it would be an illegal campaign contribution.   But even then, Giuliani couldn't let it alone.   He said something like "It had nothing to do with the campaign . . . or at least that was not the main purpose."

3.   Now Giuliani has waded into the swamp again, this time on the AT-T/Time-Warner merger.   He told HuffPost that Trump "denied the merger" between AT-T and Time-Warner.   He added:   "Whatever lobbying was done [by Cohen] didn't reach the president. . . .  He did drain the swamp. . .  The president denied the merger.  They didn't get the result they wanted."

There are so many things wrong and legally-suspect with that.   First, as a fact, the case against the merger has not yet been decided.   A trial has been held but the judge has not yet given his decision.   So, it's not true that Trump "denied the merger."   It's not up to him.

Second, even if the merger is denied by the courts, it's not a decision the president can make.   So Rudy can't say -- but he did -- that:  "He denied the merger."

Third, Rudy admits that Cohen's scheme was to sell access to influence the president.   Even if "they didn't get the result they wanted," he's still saying that's what it was all about.   Why else would AT-T, despite it's own "platoon" of lobbyists, pay Michael Cohen -- with no credentials other than access to the president -- much more than they paid the real lobbyists?

So, in dissembling in order to protect the president, he throws Michael Cohen way, way under the bus.    That's not smart -- if Michael Cohen holds all the secrets to the possible financial crimes of Donald Trump.    If Trump abandons Cohen, why should Cohen then "take a bullet" for the president?

If Rudy keeps this up, watch for Cohen to flip and start talking.

Ralph