Yankee Superfan Rudy Giuliani Just Can’t Catch a Break
Yankee Superfan Rudy Giuliani Can’t Get a Break, Even at the Ballpark
(Bloomberg) -- It was barely past 4 p.m. in the Bronx when a home run put the Houston Astros ahead, 1-0. The hometown New York Yankees were in a hole they wouldn’t climb out of.
Up in the stands, things weren’t going any better for Rudy Giuliani.
The Yankees superfan was in the crowd, as he often is, watching the team battle for a World Series berth. Giuliani was fighting off inside fastballs, too, as his work for President Donald Trump draws scrutiny in a House impeachment inquiry.
About two hours before Tuesday’s opening pitch, the first in a string of stories hit. It was CNN reporting that Giuliani was parting ways with his personal lawyer, Jon Sale, who had told Congress that Giuliani wouldn’t cooperate.
Houston went up 2-0 in the second inning. In the fourth, the home plate umpire took a foul ball to his mask. The game was delayed for 15 minutes.
That’s when Giuliani picked up his phone to news of another revelation: New York prosecutors had just announced criminal charges against a state-run Turkish bank that they said violated Iran sanctions. Giuliani had at one point tried to broker a deal with Turkish authorities to resolve the matter on behalf of his client in the scheme.
The scheme ran through Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. Contacted for comment by Bloomberg News during the fifth-inning pause, Giuliani texted: “What is Halk Bank.”
In Yankee Stadium, the game resumed after the injured home-plate umpire was replaced.
The news cycle was just getting going. The Wall Street Journal then reported that Manhattan federal prosecutors had sent a grand jury subpoena to former Congressman Pete Sessions. They wanted the Republican’s correspondence with Giuliani. It was the latest turn in a case against two Giuliani associates accused of campaign finance violations.
Asked by text if he was aware of the subpoena, Giuliani told Bloomberg: “No.”
In the seventh inning, the Astros expanded their lead over the Yankees with two more runs. The Yankees got on the board in the 8th, closing the gap to 4-1, where the score remained. Disappointed Yankees filed out, hoping the team could bounce back.
Giuliani’s day wasn’t over yet. After the game, the Washington Post reported that in 2017 he had repeatedly pushed the Trump administration to eject Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of Turkey’s president, from his Pennsylvania home.
The Post reported it had contacted Giuliani earlier in the day. He responded about the Muslim cleric by text: “Can’t comment on it that would be complete attorney client privilege but sounds wacky.”
The Yankees and Astros were scheduled for Game 4 this evening, but the game’s been postponed because of an incoming nor’easter. Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were scheduled to make their first appearance in front of a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday. That court date has been postponed a week.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Farrell in New York at gregfarrell@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, David S. Joachim
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