Rudy Giuliani is going to prison after all
For as long as Rudy Giuliani has been suspiciously serving as Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney, it’s been clear that Rudy has been trying to get himself off the hook for his own criminal antics. The question has been whether Rudy’s involvement in FBI leaks aimed at helping Trump win the election, or Rudy’s apparent status as an unregistered agent of Turkey, will be enough to land him in prison. Now it turns out Rudy is definitely going down for a different reason.
Michael Cohen announced today that he’s begging off his public testimony that had been firmly scheduled for February 7th before the House Oversight Committee. Cohen stated in exact words that he had become afraid to testify due to the threats that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani have been making against his family.
This constitutes felony witness tampering, and it’s the kind of thing you go to prison for, even if you don’t end up being convicted on the underlying charges. Donald Trump’s impending downfall is a complicated matter, because he’s looking at everything from impeachment, to dozens if not hundreds of federal and state criminal charges. But Rudy is a different story. He can, and will be, criminally indicted for witness tampering along with whatever else he’s going to be charged with.
Even if Rudy Giuliani somehow manages to beat the rap on the more complicated criminal charges, the jury will still convict him on witness tampering, because it’s so cut and dry. And even if Donald Trump decides to pardon Rudy on federal charges, which seems unlikely at this point, the state of New York can still hit Rudy with state level witness tampering charges. Rudy became Trump’s lawyer to try to keep himself out of prison, but now Rudy is going to prison specifically because of the actions he’s taken as Trump’s lawyer.
