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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Akron, Ohio, Monday, Aug. 22, 2016. Behind is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
NEW YORK >> Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has finally landed a job under President Donald Trump.
The 73-year-old former prosecutor revealed today he’s joining the legal team defending the president against special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential Russian collusion.
“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani told The Washington Post.
Trump has struggled to find top-flight lawyers willing to join his diminished legal team.
Giuliani said he made the decision in recent days after sharing a dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last week.
He spoke with Trump today about his legal strategy in a conversation that included Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.
Trump’s other lawyer Ty Cobb has taken the lead in dealing with Mueller’s team.
Giuliani declined to weigh in on the most pressing legal question facing Trump — whether to sit for an interview with Mueller and his investigators.
“It’s too early for me to say that,” Giuliani told the Post.
Giuliani was one of Trump’s earliest and loudest supporters during the presidential campaign.
But in a snub, Trump denied the former mayor a Cabinet post after assuming office.
The staunch Republican came to prominence as a hard-charging prosecutor who targeted the city’s top mob bosses and Wall Street fraudsters.
Some legal experts questioned the wisdom of the president hiring the man formerly known as “America’s Mayor.”
“So the president has run out of qualified, active criminal defense attorneys and is basically just asking friends to help out at this point,” tweeted said Bradley Moss, a Washington-based attorney specializing in national security.
“Giuliani was once a great prosecutor but when was the last time he actually handled complex criminal litigation?”
Giuliani had largely remained out of the spotlight in the last several months.
But the news of Giuliani’s new gig came amid a turbulent period.
Judith Nathan, his wife of 15 years, filed for a contested divorce two weeks ago.
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