Rudy Giuliani, widely presumed to be ‘Co-Conspirator 1’ in the Justice Department’s latest indictment of former President Donald Trump, appears to be trying out a new legal strategy as threats of his own federal criminal charges loom: pointing the finger.
Trump, 77, was indicted earlier this month on four criminal counts by a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and other efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In addition to the former president, the indictment lists six unnamed — and, as of now, unindicted — co-conspirators: four attorneys, a Justice Department official, and a political consultant who “helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification” of votes.
As Special Counsel Jack Smith announced Trump’s charges in August, he said the investigation is ongoing, which many interpreted as a warning to the co-conspirators that additional indictments may come soon.
Trump’s Jan. 6 Indictment Describes Six Unnamed ‘Co-Conspirators’: Here’s What We Know About Them So Far
Rolling Stone reports that at least a couple co-conspirators — most of whom could be identified through clues given in the indictment — are seeking to distance themselves from the attempts to overturn the election results by placing the blame on others.
“It is the ‘please don’t put me in jail, put that other guy in jail’ strategy that was sure to come up at some point or another,” one attorney with knowledge of the situation told the outlet.
Rolling Stone points to two of the men widely believed to be co-conspirators — attorneys Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro — whom the outlet says have begun to deflect blame and openly criticize other alleged co-conspirators, such as attorney Sidney Powell.
According to Rolling Stone, sources intimately familiar with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation — and lawyers who have analyzed the evidence — say that Powell appears to be the alleged co-conspirator most at-risk of facing charges.
Trump’s Legal Team Drops Attorney Sidney Powell, Who Spread Bizarre Conspiracy Theories of How He Lost to Biden
Rudy Giuliani holds a news conference with Sidney Powell several days after the 2020 presidential election.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Giuliani spent months hosting press conferences and appearing on television and in courtrooms to contest the results of the election. But while many of those appearances were often alongside Powell, he is now projecting an air of distance between the two.
Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, previously told The New York Times that his client appears to be the person identified as Co-Conspirator 1 in the indictment, though he did not stand behind the indictment’s allegations.
Speaking to CNN about an alleged plot to breach voting systems in Coffee County, Georgia, Costello claimed, “Rudy Giuliani had nothing to do with this,” adding: “You can’t attach Rudy Giuliani to Sidney Powell’s crackpot idea.”
Donald Trump Hit with New Jan. 6 Indictment After the ‘Most Wide-Ranging’ Investigation in DOJ History
Rolling Stone reports that Powell “has been a major focus of the special counsel’s office” in recent weeks, but the man central to the probe is Trump himself. And as the special counsel puts pressure on the co-conspirators, one looming question is whether any of them will turn against the former president.
The outlet cites two sources who say that, over the summer, Trump asked some of his advisers to name who among those questioned by the special counsel’s office was the most “vulnerable,” a sign that the former president himself could be worried about the continued investigation.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education