Rudy Giuliani defends his letter criticizing Romania's U.S.-supported anti-corruption crackdown

Last week, Rudy Giuliani sent a letter to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Viorica Dancila criticizing the anti-corruption effort in the country, saying the years-long crackdown is causing "continued damage to the rule of law in Romania, committed under the pretext of law enforcement." The U.S. State Department disagrees, recently affirming with 11 other nations that due to Romania's "considerable progress" in fighting rampant political corruption, the country should "avoid changes that would weaken the rule of law or Romania's ability to fight crime or corruption."

This week, the State Department called Giuliani, most famous now for representing President Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Giuliani told The Washington Post on Wednesday. "They wanted to know, 'Is this accurate? Is this real? We want to make sure this is genuine,'" he said. "Absolutely." Giuliani said he wrote the letter as a private citizen, on the letterhead of his consulting firm Giuliani Security & Safety, on behalf of Freeh Group International Solutions, a company run by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

"It has nothing to do with the U.S. government," Giuliani told The New York Times. "Private lawyers for the president have all had private practices." He did not say how much he was paid nor whom the Freeh Group is working for, though it has previously represented Romanian investor Gabriel Popoviciu, sentenced to seven years in prison last August over a real estate deal. "Maybe I should have put in the letter that I'm not representing the president," Giuliani told the Post, adding he assumes Romanians know that.

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Dan Barna, the leader of the growing anti-corruption Save Romania Union party, wants to know why Giuliani is offering his opinion then, and in what capacity. "I am convinced that President Iohannis is looking forward to the devastating messages that are likely to come from the barber and then from the chef of Donald Trump," Barna told the Times.