8/31/2018

ETHICS/FOREIGN POLICY/RUDY GIULIANI/TRUMP PEOPLE: “It is bad enough that the President of the United States is breaking long-standing ethical standards in US government, but when President Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, stepped into the contentious battle over corruption in another country, Romania, he embarrassed the United States by speaking out against clean government; he made the uphill battle for democracy advocates in Romania even steeper; and he muddied US foreign policy, taking a stand directly contrary to that of the US State Department. Romanians have been fighting what may be a losing battle to uproot corruption in their country. The tens of thousands who have taken to the streets to defend the rule of law had until now seen the United States as an ally. That’s why, when a local news site published a letter from Giuliani to Romania’s President, it detonated a bombshell of disbelief. Incredibly, Giuliani’s letter to the country’s largely-ceremonial President urged Romania to throttle the National Anticorruption Directorate, known as DNA, claiming that anti-corruption efforts were causing ‘damage to the rule of law … under the guise of effective law enforcement.’ Giuliani proposed that ‘amnesty should be given to those who have been prosecuted and convicted through the excesses of the DNA.’ And he warned that the anti-graft drive risks driving away foreign investment.”

Frida Ghitis, “Rudy Giuliani lectures another country on ethics,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 31, 2018 8:20 pm