Giuliani butt-dials NBC reporter, heard discussing need for cash and trashing Bidens
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rudy-giuliani-butt-dials-nbc-reporter-heard-discussing-need-cash-n1071901Oct. 25, 2019, 1:42 PM CDT / Updated Oct. 25, 2019, 2:02 PM CDT; By Rich Schapiro
Late in the evening on Oct. 16, Rudy Giuliani made a phone call to this reporter. The fact that Giuliani was reaching out wasn’t remarkable. He and the reporter had spoken earlier that night for a story about his ties to a fringe Iranian opposition group. But this call, it would soon become clear, wasn’t a typical case of a source following up with a reporter. The call came in at 11:07 p.m. and went to voicemail; the reporter was asleep.
The next morning, a message exactly three minutes long was sitting in his voicemail. In the recording, the words tumbling out of Giuliani’s mouth were not directed at the reporter. He was speaking to someone else, someone in the same room. The call appeared to be one of the most unfortunate of faux pas: what is known, in casual parlance, as a butt dial. And it wasn’t the first time it had happened.
“You know,” Giuliani says at the start of the recording. “Charles would have a hard time with a fraud case ‘cause he didn’t do any due diligence.”
It wasn’t clear who Charles is, or who may have been implicated in a fraud. In fact, much of the message’s first minute is difficult to comprehend, in part because the voice of the other man in the conversation is muffled and barely intelligible. But then Giuliani says something that’s crystal clear.
"Let's get back to business." He goes on.
"I gotta get you to get on Bahrain." Giuliani is well-connected in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Last December, he visited the Persian Gulf nation and had a one-on-one meeting with King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa in the royal palace. “King receives high-level U.S. delegation,” read the headline of the state-run Bahrain News Agency blurb about the visit.
Giuliani runs a security consulting company, but it’s not clear why he would have a meeting with Bahrain’s king. Was he acting in his capacity as a consultant? As Trump’s lawyer? Or as an international fixer running a shadow foreign policy for the president?
In May, Giuliani told the Daily Beast his firm had signed a deal with Bahrain to advise its police force on counter-terrorism measures. But the Bahrain News Agency account of the meeting suggested Giuliani was viewed more like an ambassador than a security consultant. “HM the King praised the longstanding Bahraini-U.S. relations, noting keenness of the two countries to constantly develop them,” it said.
The voicemail yielded no details about the meeting. But Giuliani can be heard telling the man that he’s “got to call Robert again tomorrow.”
“Is Robert around?” Giuliani asks.
“He’s in Turkey,” the man responds.
Giuliani replies instantly. “The problem is we need some money.”
The two men then go silent. Nine seconds pass. No word is spoken. Then Giuliani chimes in again.
“We need a few hundred thousand,” he says.
It’s unclear what the two men were talking about. But Giuliani is known to have worked closely with a Robert who has ties to Turkey.
His name is Robert Mangas, and he’s a lawyer at the firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, as well as a registered agent of the Turkish government. Giuliani himself was employed by Greenberg Traurig until about May 2018.
Mangas’s name appears in court documents related to the case of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish gold trader charged in the U.S. with laundering Iranian money in a scheme to evade American sanctions. Giuliani was brought on to assist Zarrab in 2017. He traveled to Turkey with his former law partner Michael Mukasey and attempted to strike a deal with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to secure the release of their jailed client, alarming the federal prosecutor leading the case. Giuliani and Mangas were both employed by Greenberg Traurig at the time. The firm and Mangas had registered with the Justice Department to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of Turkey, according to an affidavit from Mangas.
Mangas did not return a request for comment.
Giuliani’s conversation partner can be heard responding to the "few hundred thousand" comment. But it’s possible to make out only the beginning of his answer, and even that is somewhat garbled.
“I’d say even if Bahrain could get, I’m not sure how good [unintelligible words] with his people,” the man says.
“Yeah, okay,” Giuliani says.
“You want options? I got options,” the man says.
“Yeah give me options,” Giuliani replies.
The exchange took place at the 2:20 mark in the voicemail message. The other man does most of the talking in the remaining 40 seconds, and it’s difficult to piece together what he says.
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YES, I BELIEVE IT IS!!
I expect we'll be hearing much more about this. Trump isn't the only one who has gone over the edge... 
but decided to wait. But as soon as I saw this I was like - where's the blaring headlines on this story????? Now you made me turn the TV on.
I didn't much like her initially since she worked for W, but she's grown on me and hers is one show I usually watch. She said she gave up on the Republicans when Sarah Palin was nominated and she now speaks out as much as anyone, as does her panel, and she often has breaking news. 
And you're right, she goes straight to what's going on and she has appropriate guests there to discuss it. And she doesn't hold back on criticizing the Republicans in no uncertain terms now, LOL. In fact, she has said that she refrains from showing Trump footage on her show - which I appreciate! 
I usually wait until Ari @ 6 but with all the stuff that keeps coming out, I have turned it on a bit earlier with Schmuck, but rarely have it on this early with Nicolle. 
(they all usually rotate the contributors and analysts across most of the shows anyway)
He's a lawyer and is good at explaining the issues we're facing - and he often has Maya Wiley, also very savvy and another favorite of mine. I don't usually catch him since I mostly leave the house by 6:30 - I wish that they'd repeat his show late nights rather than Brian Williams 3x! 
She is sharp as a tack!
And yeah, they seem to only repeat the "prime time" shows (Chris, Rachel, Lawrence, and Brian) - at least when I listen on SirusXM.
Since I believe it's their highest rated show. But they replaced it awhile back with yet another repeat of Brian Williams and, for me, once is enough - though he's been speaking out pretty forcefully recently too! 
I'm not normally up when he finally comes on but sometimes I'll have my SiriusXM radio turned on MSNBC while in bed and may intermittently be lucid enough to hear him... But agree that once is enough!
Which absolutely shows how bad it's gotten! :
And you're right, Nicolle still has a soft spot for her "old boss" as she calls him. Though I have to give her credit for seeing the light long before the "never Trumpers." 
