October 16. NBC sat on this story for a while. I'm assuming it was to do some digging into who Rudy was talking to and about. At any rate, Rudy is digging himself a grave. The chances that Trump throws him under the bus were about 98% already. He'll be lucky if some mob cleanup man doesn't literally throw him under a bus.
Late in the night Oct. 16, Rudy Giuliani made a phone call to [NBC reporter Rich Shapiro]. The fact that Giuliani was reaching out wasn't remarkable. He and the reporter had spoken earlier that evening for a story about his ties to a fringe Iranian opposition group.
[...]
The call came in at 11:07 p.m. and went to voicemail; the reporter was asleep.
The next morning, a message exactly three minutes long was sitting in the reporter's voicemail.
[...]
Giuliani can be heard discussing overseas dealings and lamenting the need for cash, though it's difficult to discern the full context of the conversation.
[...]
"You know," Giuliani says at the start of the recording. "Charles would have a hard time with a fraud case 'cause he didn't do any due diligence."
It wasn't clear who Charles is, or who may have been implicated in a fraud. In fact, much of the message's first minute is difficult to comprehend, in part because the voice of the other man in the conversation is muffled and barely intelligible.
But then, Giuliani says something that's crystal clear.
"Let's get back to business."
He goes on.
"I gotta get you to get on Bahrain."
Giuliani is well-connected in the kingdom of Bahrain.
[...]
In May, Giuliani told the Daily Beast his firm had signed a deal with Bahrain to advise its police force on counterterrorism measures. But the Bahrain News Agency account of the meeting suggested Giuliani was viewed more like an ambassador than a security consultant. "HM the King praised the longstanding Bahraini-U.S. relations, noting keenness of the two countries to constantly develop them," it said.
The voicemail yielded no details about the meeting. But Giuliani can be heard telling the man that he's "got to call Robert again tomorrow."
"Is Robert around?" Giuliani asks.
"He's in Turkey," the man responds.
Giuliani replies instantly. "The problem is we need some money."
[...]
"We need a few hundred thousand," he says.
It's unclear what the two men were talking about. But Giuliani is known to have worked with a Robert who has ties to Turkey.
His name is Robert Mangas, and he's a lawyer at the firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, as well as a registered agent of the Turkish government.
Giuliani himself was employed by Greenberg Traurig until about May 2018.
[...]
Giuliani was brought on to assist [Reza] Zarrab in 2017. He traveled to Turkey with his former law partner Michael Mukasey and attempted to strike a deal with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to secure the release of their jailed client, alarming the federal prosecutor leading the case.
Giuliani and Mangas were both employed by Greenberg Traurig at the time. The firm and Mangas had registered with the Justice Department to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of Turkey, according to an affidavit from Mangas.
Mangas provided the affidavit at the request of a judge to explain whether there was any conflict in Giuliani representing Zarrab while still employed by a firm registered to lobby on behalf of Turkey.
Mangas, who did not return a request for comment, says in the court document that Giuliani was never involved in the representation of Turkey.
A Greenberg Traurig spokesperson said Mangas has not been to Turkey since 2013 and therefore could not have been the person discussed on the call.
[...]
"I'd say even if Bahrain could get, I'm not sure how good [unintelligible words] with his people," the [man to whom Giuliani is talking] says.
"Yeah, okay," Giuliani says.
"You want options? I got options," the man says.
"Yeah, give me options," Giuliani replies.
[...]
The other man does most of the talking in the remaining 40 seconds, and it's difficult to piece together what he says.
[...]
The late-night Giuliani butt dial came 18 days after a midafternoon Giuliani butt dial.
The first one happened when the NBC News reporter was at a fifth-birthday party for an extended family member in Central Jersey.
[...]
The previous day, the reporter interviewed Giuliani for an article quoting several of his former Justice Department colleagues who said they believed he committed crimes in his effort to push the Ukrainians to launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.
[...]
Giuliani is heard talking to at least one other person. The conversation appears to pick up almost exactly where Giuliani's phone call with the reporter left off the day before, with Giuliani insisting he was the target of attacks because he was making public accusations about a powerful Democratic politician.
"I expected it would happen," Giuliani says at the start of the recording. "The minute you touch on one of the protected people, they go crazy. They come after you."
"You got the truth on your side," an unidentified man says.
"It's very powerful," Giuliani replies.
Giuliani spends the entire three minutes railing against the Bidens. He can be heard recycling many of the unfounded allegations he has been making on cable news and in interviews with print reporters.
[...]
One of Hunter Biden's early business partners was Christopher Heinz, stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry. But Heinz objected to Hunter Biden's decision to work for the Ukrainian gas company and ultimately cut ties with him. Heinz had nothing to do with the Chinese investment fund.
But in the voicemail message, Giuliani is heard telling his friend that Kerry's stepson was working for the same foreign entities that employed Hunter Biden.
"His partner was John Kerry's stepson," Giuliani said. "Secretary of State and the vice president for the price of one."
The recording ends the same way it began. "They don't want to investigate because he's protected, so we gotta force them to do it," Giuliani says, before apparently turning to the president's now-infamous call with the Ukrainian president.
"And the Ukraine, they're investigating him and they blocked it twice. So what the president was [unintelligible word], 'You can't keep doing this. You have to investigate this.' And they say it will affect the 2020 election."
[...]
Over the last 10 days, Giuliani has given few media interviews.
Calls to his phone Thursday led to a recorded message saying his mailbox was full.
NBC
On that last part, I think we can all agree.
UPDATE:
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