Rudy Giuliani, a longtime ally of former United States President Donald Trump, is rumored to have betrayed the Republican businessman after allegedly talking with prosecutors over the Jan. 6 riot that the former president has now been indicted of.
The situation comes as Trump wrote a statement to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday morning where he revealed that the Department of Justice Special Counsel, Jack Smith, sent him a letter. The document informed the former president that he is now the target of a probe into the Capitol Hill riot.
Has Rudy Giuliani Turned on Donald Trump?
The incident saw a mob of angry Trump supporters who were allegedly motivated by the former president's unfounded claims of voter fraud. They gathered and rioted at the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block President Joe Biden's electoral college victory certification.
Trump has continued to maintain his stance that he is innocent in the case, saying that prosecutors are simply targeting him for political purposes. He said that they wanted to weaken him and his influence so that he would not have as strong of a presence in the 2024 presidential race, as per Newsweek.
On the other hand, there have been reports that Giualiani's attorneys said that he had a "voluntary" interview with the special counsel in late June. The announcement prompted some legal experts to speculate that Giuliani may have flipped on Trump.
Despite speculation on social media platforms, there has been no confirmation from Giuliani's attorneys on whether or not he is cooperating with prosecutors regarding the case. Additionally, legal analysts said that there are several reasons why the former Trump attorney may have not received a target letter, noting that it was still too early to actually conclude that he has turned on the former president.
Giuliani is known to have echoed Trump's unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential race. Additionally, he is said to have overseen efforts to install a false slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College from battleground states that Trump narrowly lost.
Capitol Hill Riot
His alleged conversation with the special counsel came before Smith's investigators met with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The latter allegedly had a phone call with Trump in early January 2021, where the former president is said to have unsuccessfully pressured Reffensperger into finding enough votes in the state to overturn Biden's victory, according to CNBC.
The state was one of the several key states that gave the Democratic candidate his margin of victory in the Electoral College. It is the body that actually selects American presidents after the popular vote.
The Trump-Raffensperger call happened a few days before the joint session of Congress convened to certify the Electoral College results. However, it was interrupted for several hours by the group of Trump supporters who besieged the Capitol.
In a statement, Giuliani's adviser Ted Goodman said that any speculation that his client has turned against Trump was false. He said that such a situation would have required Giuliani to commit perjury. This is because all the information he has regarding the case points to Trump's innocence, said ABC News.
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