You lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.
It was a saying we used to use to express the belief associating with unsavory people was going to have a negative effect on anybody. It was a crude but hard truth.
Federal investigators seized personal computers and cellphones from Rudolph Guiliani as part of an investigation into his dealings with the government in the Ukraine. Guiliani claims he is the victim of a prosecutorial double standard. The Justice Department has ignored the crimes of Hillary Clinton and other democrats while focusing on him with a vengeful glee. He actually mentioned Ms. Clinton by name. Since the 2016 election, she has become the graven image of republican scorn and hate.
In reality, it was before the election.
The Benghazi hearings went on for two years and 4 months. on for days. Finally concluding in 33 hearings costing 7 million dollars and proving nothing. There were times you actually thought Representative Jim Jordan (republican Ohio) and Trey Gowdy (republican South Carolina) seemed to think that Ms. Clinton killed the four people herself. In the end she walked out, more or less intact, and the final report was huge, but insubstantial.
She has been investigated, looked into, discussed, and reported on to the point of exhaustion. Including the bizarre letter to congress on October 28th 2016 from Director Comey of the FBI that they were opening an investigation of Ms. Clinton’s email practices. A terrible perversion of due process that almost certainly cost her the election. So, Hillary Clinton has seen her share of examination. Giuliani would wither and perish under the scrutiny Clinton has stood up to.
There is no doubt Giuliani has been chasing cameras for as long as he has been working for President Trump. He jumped at the opportunity to talk about his contacts in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He was a private employee who cared little about procedures and protocol. And he reveled in bypassing all the established rules.
Giuliani’s abuses were so blatant that John Bolton was quoted as saying “Giuliani is a hand grenade that is going to blow up everybody.”
It’s difficult to tell when the investigation began, the Justice Department is not really saying anything. But, rumors have it beginning sometime in 2108, having been slowed considerably by the Trump administration. Considering the depth of the warrants it has been in the works for some time, it’s a slow process seizing property from a lawyer, with all of the attorney/client privilege considerations. But, it’s gathering steam and it could get interesting quickly.
It conjures the specter of Roy Cohn, another lawyer associated with Trump. He was the oracle who taught Trump the strategy of denying everything, deflecting everything, defensive aggressiveness and hostility, attacking your accusers and ignoring anything unflattering or contrary. He was larger than life, invincible, until the end. He was disbarred, lost his license and his will to live. He died in disgrace.
Later we saw the fall of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal fixer. A man who felt he was in symbiosis with Trump and found it was only an illusion. Loyalty is not one of Trump’s greatest strengths. He lost his license, was sent to prison and was left on the outside looking in.
Now we have Giuliani. He is in running from reality and history. Trump doesn’t care about Giuliani, trivial press releases about how “it’s like, so unfair” to be seizing Giuliani’s property and investigating his role is an obscene web of influence peddling and potential corruption. “You lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.” I guess it still makes sense.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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