Officials: Giuliani pushed extradition
He urged Trump to extradite a Turkish cleric living in exile in the U.S., a top priority of President Erdogan.
WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani privately urged President Donald Trump in 2017 to extradite a Turkish cleric living in exile in the United States, a top priority of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to former administration officials familiar with the discussions.
Giuliani, a Trump ally who later became the president’s personal attorney, repeatedly argued to Trump that the U.S. government should eject Fethullah Gulen from the country, according to the former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Turkey has demanded that the United States turn over Gulen, a permanent U.S. resident who lives in Pennsylvania, to stand trial on charges of plotting a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan. Gulen has denied involvement in the plot.
Giuliani is now under scrutiny for his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals. His earlier attempts to persuade the president to turn over the Turkish cleric represent another instance in which he appears to have been pushing a shadow foreign policy.
The former New York mayor brought up Gulen so frequently with Trump during visits to the White House that one former official described the subject as Giuliani’s “hobby horse.”
He was so focused on the issue — “it was all Gulen,” recalled a second former official — that White House aides worried that Giuliani was making the case on behalf of the Turkish government, former officials said.
“We’re not going to arrest (Gulen) to do a solid for Erdogan,” the second official said, describing the internal thinking.
However, Trump appeared receptive to the idea, pressing his advisers about Gulen’s status, the people said.
One former senior administration official recalled that Trump asked frequently about why Gulen couldn’t be turned over to Turkey, referring to Erdogan as “my friend.”
Administration officials were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea.
White House officials did not respond to requests for comment.
It’s unclear why Giuliani was championing a cause of such high importance to Erdogan — one the Turkish president personally raised with both the Obama administration and Trump.
In 2017, Giuliani unsuccessfully pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help on another matter important to Erdogan: helping stop the U.S. prosecution of a Turkish Iranian trader, The Washington Post reported last week.
Giuliani is not registered as a foreign lobbyist, as he would be required to do if he were being paid to lobby the U.S. government on a policy matter for a foreign interest.
Giuliani told The Post in a phone interview Monday that he never represented Turkey and so he does not need to register as a foreign lobbyist.
In a text exchange Tuesday, Giuliani declined to discuss whether he advocated for Gulen’s extradition, writing: “can’t comment on it that would be complete attorney client privilege but sounds wacky.”
When told that multiple people described the conversations to The Post, Giuliani responded “Bull,” and then liked the question with a thumbs-up emoji.
Federal investigators are examining Giuliani’s business dealings with two former associates who were arrested last week on campaign finance charges.
A federal grand jury in New York has issued a subpoena to former GOP congressman Pete Sessions of Texas seeking records and other information on his interactions with Giuliani and his associates.
David Correia, a Florida man who was also named in the indictment regarding the campaign finance case, is in federal custody after flying Wednesday to Kennedy Airport in New York to turn himself in, federal authorities said.