Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is reportedly the leading candidate for secretary of state under President-elect Donald Trump, although his ties to foreign clients could mean an unprecedented conflict of interest, Politico reports.
After leaving the mayor's office in 2001, Giuliani served as a lawyer and consultant with ties to clients such as an Iranian political party that had formerly been designated a terrorist organization, a Qatar state-run oil company, a Singapore gambling tycoon linked to North Korea and involved in organized crime in the U.S., and an oil company at one point run by late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, among others. "When some of those ties surfaced amid Giuliani's own presidential bid in 2007, they were considered to pose an unprecedented number of ethical quandaries for a potential commander in chief," Politico writes.
The links are potentially problematic for Giuliani's pursuit of the nation's highest diplomatic office, as Trump has both vowed to end self-dealing in Washington and heavily criticized the Clinton Foundation's acceptance of money from foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state under President Obama.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
August 31 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include FEMA's new scheme, Gavin Newsom's antics, and a clue in the Epstein files
-
Disarming Hezbollah: Lebanon's risky missionTalking Point Iran-backed militia has brought 'nothing but war, division and misery', but rooting them out for good is a daunting and dangerous task
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogsThe Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
