State Department: Giuliani doesn’t speak for U.S. on foreign policy

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration sought to distance itself Monday from Rudy Giuliani’s dramatic public statements about Iran and North Korea, saying that President Donald Trump’s new lawyer does not speak for the president on matters of foreign policy.

Since joining Mr. Trump’s legal team last month and becoming its public face, Mr. Giuliani has raised eyebrows for a series of startling assertions not only about his legal strategy and the special counsel investigation but also about global affairs and Mr. Trump’s policies. That spurred widespread confusion over whether the former New York mayor, now on Mr. Trump’s payroll, was disclosing information he had been told by the president, stating U.S. government policy, or merely describing his own impression of events.

“He speaks for himself and not on behalf of the administration on foreign policy,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Monday.

It was the clearest sign to date that Mr. Trump’s administration is seeking to draw a line between itself and Mr. Giuliani on matters of government policy, even as he continues to act as his spokesman on matters related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. It comes as Mr. Trump prepares for a series of high-stakes moments in the coming weeks on Iran, North Korea and the Mideast conflict — the type of delicate and potentially explosive regions where events can easily be upended by an errant remark by an emissary of the U.S. president.

Mr. Giuliani’s perplexing and sometimes conflicting remarks have increasingly become a cause of consternation for Mr. Trump’s aides. Asked last week whether Mr. Giuliani’s portfolio included foreign policy, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said simply, “Not that I’m aware of.” And on Friday, even Mr. Trump seemed peeved by the attention that Mr. Giuliani’s off-message comments were attracting, telling reporters that the former prosecutor had just come on board and was still working to “get his facts straight.”

Mr. Trump was referring to his new attorney’s statements about the $130,000 hush payment to a porn star that had contradicted Mr. Trump’s past comments. Yet Mr. Giuliani’s remarks have been watched with equal concern at the State Department, the Pentagon and other national security agencies, starting last week when he said on television that North Korea would release three Americans detained in the country.

“We got Kim Jong Un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today,” Mr. Giuliani told Fox News.

Although Mr. Trump has hinted that such a move could be coming, no formal announcement has been made by the U.S. government, which is in talks with North Korea at the moment to plan a historic summit between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump. The detainees have not yet been released.

On Saturday, Mr. Giuliani caused another stir when he spoke to a group that supports the overthrow of Iran’s government and said that the president was “committed” to regime change in Iran. Although Mr. Trump is sharply critical of Iran and preparing for a decision by week’s end about whether to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, his administration has not called for overthrowing Iran’s government. U.S. officials said they were taken aback by Mr. Giuliani’s comments and did not consider them to be consistent with current Trump administration policy.

In the Trump administration, the lines between official spokesman and Trump confidant have often been blurred, creating questions about who speaks authoritatively for the president. There’s a risk for the U.S. if world leaders trying to divine Mr. Trump’s intentions aren’t sure who to believe, said Ned Price, a former spokesman for the White House National Security Council in the Obama administration.