Rudy Giuliani (by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia)
Yesterday, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, stood athwart his glass house and threw stones at Stormy Daniels over the way she makes a living.
As everybody knows “Stormy” is not her given name. Stephanie Clifford is an adult film actress, and “Stormy Daniels” is just her nom de bang. It’s one thing to have a little fun with the manufactured male fantasy that is “Stormy Daniels.” But it’s cheap and mean to come after how Stephanie Clifford, a single mother, goes about providing for her family.
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Unfortunately, cheap and mean is where Rudy Giuliani lives. From BuzzFeed:
“I respect women — beautiful women and women with value – but a woman who sells her body for sexual exploitation I don’t respect,” said Giuliani, during a conference in Israel on Wednesday…
“Someone who sells his or her body for money has no good name,” said Giuliani.
“I even have to respect criminals. But I’m sorry, I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and a person and isn’t going to sell her body for sexual exploitation,” added the president’s attorney.
Oh, we want to talk about people who sell themselves for money? Okay. I’ll leave it to others (like Senator Elizabeth Warren) to point out that Giuliani’s so-called respect for “beautiful women” is sexist and his placement of criminals over a woman who earns her living legally is just disgusting.
But if we want to have a real conversation about exactly which one of these two has degraded themselves to make a buck, I’m here for that. Stephanie Clifford is just an actress playing a role. That should be an easy concept for lawyers to understand. All lawyers should know a little something about participating in a stylized production where you are a mere vessel deployed to fellate someone’s opinion of themselves. And Giuliani should know that better than most. Let’s take a look at Giuliani’s “client list,” shall we?
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- He represented Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, against claims that executives misled the public about the drug’s deleterious and addictive effects. Eventually, those guys pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
- Giuliani’s private security firm received contracts from a shady emir in Qatar who was suspected of hiding terrorists, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
- He worked with Hank Asher, a billionaire who got his start smuggling cocaine in the Bahamas.
- He lobbied the government in Singapore for a Las Vegas consortium looking to build a casino. One of those partners was a Hong Kong tycoon with ties to an international crime web.
- He gave a speech on behalf of Mujahideen-e Khalq, and Iranian exile group that was allied with Saddam Hussein, in an attempt to get them off the State Department’s terror watch group list.
- And there are the obligatory Russian connections. Giuliani has provided advice to TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, a company that “assists Western clients in furthering their business interests in the emerging economies of the former Soviet Union.” The company also provides image consulting to Russian oligarchs.
That’s just what shows up on the first page of Giuliani’s PornHub Google. You can do this with almost any lawyer. Just like with an adult film actress, it’s not hard to find footage that puts lawyers in uncomfortable positions.
But for a person trying to ride around on a moral high horse, it’s worth pointing out that Giuliani has made his living off of drugs, terrorists, and Russians… from a man who claims to be morally superior to a porn star.
If he wants to go there, fine. Stephanie Clifford is just an actress. Giuliani has been the real whore.
Rudy Giuliani Said Stormy Daniels Doesn’t Deserve Respect Because She’s A Porn Star [Buzzfeed]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.