Giuliani’s former law firm undercuts departure claim
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, abruptly resigned from his law firm, which then promptly undercut his recent statements defending the president.
Giuliani had taken a leave of absence last month from the firm, Greenberg Traurig, to represent Trump. But the firm said in a statement Thursday that he no longer worked there.
Firm partners had chafed over Giuliani’s public comments about payments that another of Trump’s lawyers, Michael Cohen, made to secure the silence of a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Trump. The president has denied her allegations.
Giuliani suggested that such payments were common at his firm, even without the knowledge of the clients. “That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds,” he said on Fox News. He added, “Michael would take care of things like this like I take care of this with my clients.”
The New York Times asked Greenberg Traurig about those remarks early this week. Shortly after Giuliani’s resignation was announced, the firm responded.
“We cannot speak for Mr. Giuliani with respect to what was intended by his remarks,” said a spokeswoman, Jill Perry. “Speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged to have been made or otherwise without the knowledge and direction of a client.”
Trump has publicly denied knowing about the payments as they were made.
Giuliani said the president reimbursed Cohen for them, an arrangement he said was routine. Giuliani had to walk back many of his comments.
In the statement, Greenberg Traurig said that Giuliani had resigned effective Wednesday. “After recognizing that this work is all consuming and is lasting longer than initially anticipated, Rudy has determined it is best for him to resign,” said the firm’s chairman, Richard Rosenbaum.
Giuliani said in the statement that it “is in everyone’s best interest that I make it a permanent resignation” so he can focus on the special counsel’s investigation.
Many of the country’s top law firms have resisted the prospect of their lawyers representing the president.
As Trump tried to rebuild his legal team this spring, firms told their top lawyers that if they wanted to represent the president, they would have to resign. The firms were concerned about Trump’s long-standing history of ignoring his lawyers’ advice and apparent failure to pay his bills, and backlash from employees who did not want to work for a firm that was representing Trump.
One person close to Giuliani said that his serving in the administration in some role eventually was a possibility and had been the subject of informal conversations he had with the president.