Rudy Giuliani holds a press conference on Nov. 19, 2020, claiming voter fraud in the presidential election.Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Rudy Giuliani, widely presumed to be ‘Co-Conspirator 1’ in the Justice Department’s latest indictment of former PresidentDonald Trump, appears to be trying out a new legal strategy as threats of his own federal criminal charges loom: pointing the finger.
In addition to the former president, the indictment lists six unnamed — and, as of now, unindicted — co-conspirators: four attorneys, a Justice Department official, and a political consultant who “helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification” of votes.
As Special Counsel Jack Smith announced Trump’s charges in August, he said the investigation is ongoing, which many interpreted as a warning to the co-conspirators that additional indictments may come soon.
“It is the ‘please don’t put me in jail, put that other guy in jail’ strategy that was sure to come up at some point or another,” one attorney with knowledge of the situation told the outlet.
Rolling Stonepoints to two of the men widely believed to be co-conspirators — attorneys Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro — whom the outlet says have begun to deflect blame and openly criticize other alleged co-conspirators, such as attorneySidney Powell.
According toRolling Stone, sources intimately familiar with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation — and lawyers who have analyzed the evidence — say that Powell appears to be the alleged co-conspirator most at-risk of facing charges.
Rudy Giuliani holds a news conference with Sidney Powell several days after the 2020 presidential election.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Giuliani spent months hosting press conferences and appearing on television and in courtrooms to contest the results of the election. But while many of those appearances were often alongside Powell, he is now projecting an air of distance between the two.
Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, previously toldThe New York Timesthat his client appears to be the person identified as Co-Conspirator 1 in the indictment, though he did not stand behind the indictment’s allegations.
Speaking toCNNabout analleged plot to breach voting systemsin Coffee County, Georgia, Costello claimed, “Rudy Giuliani had nothing to do with this,” adding: “You can’t attach Rudy Giuliani to Sidney Powell’s crackpot idea.”
Rolling Stonereports that Powell “has been a major focus of the special counsel’s office” in recent weeks, but the man central to the probe is Trump himself. And as the special counsel puts pressure on the co-conspirators, one looming question is whether any of them will turn against the former president.
source: people.com
