IMAGE CREDIT: GOLFCHANNEL.COM

The man who served as Mayor of New York City at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Rudy Giuliani, has reappeared in the spotlight – as a surrogate for the Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump. During the last several weeks, Giuliani has appeared on all of the major television and cable networks, continually beating the drum that he believes Hillary Clinton is corrupt and has improperly used her government connections and contacts to profit personally, through the Clinton Foundation.

Watch his appearance on MSNBC yesterday:

This is quite an interesting charge for Giuliani to level at Clinton, considering that one can easily make the argument that Giuliani used his experience in handling the fallout from the September 11 attacks and his government connections to snare a personal profit for himself – to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

On May 3, 2007, John Solomon and Matthew Mosk of The Washington Post published a piece on the ways in which Giuliani used his connections and government ties to earn this remarkable payday. Here is an excerpt:

“On Dec. 7, 2001, nearly three months after the terrorist attack that had made him a national hero and a little over three weeks before he would leave office, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani took the first official step toward making himself rich.

The letter he dispatched to the city Conflicts of Interest Board that day asked permission to begin forming a consulting firm with three members of his outgoing administration. The company, Giuliani said, would provide “management consulting service to governments and business” and would seek out partners for a “wide-range of possible business, management and financial services” projects.

Over the next five years, Giuliani Partners earned more than $100 million, according to a knowledgeable source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the firm’s financial information is private. And that success helped transform the Republican considered the front-runner for his party’s 2008 presidential nomination from a moderately well-off public servant into a globe-trotting consultant whose net worth is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

In crafting its image, the firm took care to burnish its most valuable asset: the worldwide reputation Giuliani had earned for his composure and leadership in the days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. “No client is ever approved or worked on without a full discussion with Rudy,” said the firm’s senior managing partner, Michael D. Hess, former corporation counsel for the city of New York.

Not surprisingly, a firm that markets Giuliani and is run by Giuliani has taken on the characteristics of the politician, who even by New York standards was known for his self-confidence and sometimes defiant insistence on doing things his way.

Famously loyal, Giuliani chose as his partners longtime associates, including a former police commissioner later convicted of corruption, a former FBI executive who admitted taking artifacts from Ground Zero and a former Roman Catholic priest accused of covering up sexual abuse in the church.

Giuliani, grounded in the intricately connected world of New York politics, has been more than adept at making the system work for his clients. They have included a pharmaceutical company that, with Giuliani’s help, resolved a lengthy Drug Enforcement Administration investigation with only a fine; a confessed drug smuggler who hired Giuliani to ensure his security company could do business with the federal government; and the horse racing industry, eager to recover public confidence after a betting scandal.

Clients of Giuliani Partners are required to sign confidentiality agreements, so they do not comment about the work they receive or how much they are paying for it. Though now running for president, Giuliani refuses to identify his clients, disclose his compensation or reveal any details about Giuliani Partners. He also declined to be interviewed about the firm.”

Giuliani is likely counting on the belief most people forgot or never even knew about his rise in fortunes through the use of his government ties, but for those who do remember, this man is a less than credible surrogate, as Trump attempts to level corruption charges against Hillary Clinton.