Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, where the host asked the guest if comments he made on Fox News about the Donald Trump campaign having a surprise on the way, two days before FBI Director James Comey wrote a letter addressing U.S. Congress with regard to emails stored by Clinton-aide Human Abedin on a computer used by her estranged husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, as previously reported by the Inquisitr , were related to possible inside FBI information.
“I’m trying to figure out the timeline here,” Chris Matthews said to the former mayor with regard to a potential FBI-Giuliani connection.
Matthews expressed his understanding that Director Comey received the information he shared with Congress on Friday, October 28, the day before, on Thursday. The Hardball host questioned how Rudy Giuliani got a “24-hour jump on Comey.”
“What I was talking about, Chris, was the advertising we’re [the Trump campaign] doing,” the former mayor explained.
“You were teasing with that anchorwoman that you had an advertising plan?” Chris Matthews sounded unconvinced.
Rudy Giuliani went on to say that he had been working on a “presentation” to help spell-out Donald Trump’s message for the advertising and that he had “no idea” that the FBI director was going to write to Congress about the Abedin-Weiner emails.
The former New York City mayor then stated that, for “about four months,” he did “know about” other members of the FBI being upset with the manner in which James Comey had handled the private email server case against Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to Giuliani, FBI agents no longer serving with the bureau were his source.
“Not from current FBI agents,” Rudy Giuliani was clear. “I haven’t spoken with a current FBI agent… in the last nine months.”
Seemingly seeking to clarify further, Chris Matthews asked Giuliani to answer whether he currently had any information from “inside” the FBI, which the New Yorker insisted he did not.
Chris Matthews then asked for Rudy Giuliani’s perspective with regard to Hillary Clinton’s private email server and exactly what she had done wrong, if perhaps she had committed a “felony” the moment she decided to use one when serving as secretary of state.
“No, no, no,” Giuliani replied.
Giuliani said that he would be “shocked” if Iran, Russian, or China hadn’t hacked Hillary Clinton’s server.
Matthews pointed out that the U.S. State Department has been hacked too.
The MSNBC host asked Giuliani what Hillary Clinton’s criminal “intent” would be to keep a private email server, explaining that he was attempting to understand what she could gain from doing such a thing.
Rudy Giuliani responded that it was when she deleted over 30,000 emails, which he alleges was to hide connections between donors to the Clinton Foundation and the activities of the State Department.
Chris Matthews explained his understanding of the law is that officials with the State Department are permitted to sort out private emails and only submit emails related to government business to the government.
“If that were you or me, that case would go before a grand jury,” Giuliani said.
The former mayor accused the U.S. Justice Department of being corrupt for blocking the actions of a grand jury to prosecute Clinton.
Chris Matthews opined that the word “corrupt” is used so often that it’s beginning to lose meaning.
“Everyone’s corrupt on the other side,” Matthews said.
Later in the Hardball interview, Matthews asked Giuliani about the criminal prosecution of associates of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Giuliani responded that the governor wasn’t being investigated by the FBI, but that Hillary Clinton is and possibly “exposing Top secret information,” before accusing the host of pivoting away from the Hillary Clinton.
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