Peter Stone writes:

In his frenzied crusade to help President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election result, Rudy Giuliani has displayed many of the characteristics that Trump has long demanded in his personal lawyers—albeit with more surreal and comedic elements.

Giuliani has shown unswerving loyalty, gleefully obfuscated facts, launched wild attacks on the media, hosted circus-style press conferences, and gone to court, all in a fruitless, evidence-free quest to persuade several states to block Joe Biden’s electoral victories.

But that might not be Giuliani’s only—or ultimate—goal.

The former New York mayor might just be trying to save himself, according to the Department of Justice veterans and legal experts I spoke with. Giuliani seems to be facing growing legal threats, and he may be angling for a presidential pardon, they told me in interviews over the past few weeks.

According to a new report in The New York Times, Giuliani has had more than one discussion with Trump about getting a preemptive pardon, but whether Trump has agreed is unclear. (Giuliani’s personal lawyer denied to me last week that his client wants to secure a pardon from Trump, saying Giuliani hadn’t done anything wrong; on Twitter today, Giuliani himself denied the Times story.)

Giuliani faces potential criminal exposure stemming from his lengthy campaign to dig up dirt on the Biden family in Ukraine. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the two Soviet-born men who worked closely with Giuliani in a widely debunked drive to link Biden and his son Hunter to corruption in that country, have been charged with making illegal campaign contributions. The pair were slated to go to trial in March, but that’s since been postponed to later in 2021. (Both Parnas and Fruman pleaded not guilty.) The FBI is also reportedly investigating Giuliani’s Ukraine efforts, including his possible ties to Russian intelligence. A key Giuliani contact in Ukraine for anti-Biden materials was Andrii Derkach, a lawmaker whom the Treasury Department sanctioned in September as an “active Russian agent” attempting to interfere in November’s election.

Giuliani’s zealous, bumbling efforts to help Trump make sense if he’s spooked and wishes to save his own skin. [Continue reading…]