Rudy Giuliani complicates reporter's attempt to figure out why he was going to Vienna

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Rudy Giuliani's life is getting more complex by the day.

The Atlantic's Elaina Plott wrote on Thursday that she was scheduled to have lunch with Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, on Thursday. That's the only time that would work, he told her Wednesday night, because he was flying to Vienna on Thursday night. Their conversation took place at about the same time two of Giuliani's associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at a Washington, D.C. airport, carrying one-way tickets to an international destination. The Wall Street Journal later reported they were headed to Vienna.

Parnas and Fruman have been charged with campaign finance violations. Plott met Parnas, Fruman, and Giuliani at a cigar bar earlier this year, she wrote, and Parnas told her they were "great friends" who "work together." Wanting to know why the men were all going to Vienna around the same time, Plott said she called Giuliani, and was surprised when a woman answered, saying she was his communications director. The woman told Plott she'd have to call her back, and then Plott heard Giuliani yell "Asshole!" in the background. The woman apologized, and told Plott he was shouting at the television.

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Plott wrote that she finally got a response from Giuliani about an hour later, but he didn't say anything about why everyone was going to Vienna, or why, as he told the Journal, he wasn't meeting with Parnas and Fruman in Austria but rather in D.C. when everyone was back. "I can't comment on it at this time," he said. Read more at The Atlantic.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.