Giuliani adds toughness, power to Don legal team

West Palm Beach, Florida, April 21: For weeks, President Donald Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with the cable news chatter that he couldn’t hire a big- name attorney for his legal team.

But the president boasted to a confidant this week that he had struck a deal that he believed would silence those critics: He was hiring “America’s F— - ing Mayor.”

With the addition of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump gains a former US attorney, a past presidential candidate and a TV- savvy defender at a time when the White House is looking for ways to bring the president’s involvement with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to a close.

Trump has been weighing whether to sit for questioning by Mueller’s team, and his lawyers have repeatedly met with investigators to define the scope of the questions he would face.

Giuliani will enter those negotiations, filling the void left by attorney John Dowd, who resigned last month. The deal was finalised over dinner in the last week at Mar- aLago, the president’s coastal Florida retreat.

On Monday, Giuliani was spotted at a West Palm Beach hotel, gleefully puffing on a cigar but declining to talk to the press. Giuliani’s addition to the legal team fulfills his long- delayed hope for a White House job.

After drawing wide praise for his leadership in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Giuliani ran for president seven years later, only to see his bid quickly falter.