‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Dec. 9, 2007

MR. GIULIANI:  That creates a threat.  That creates a threat.  They did have a bombing a while back, and what they want is American expertise, American help in how to deal with that threat with some people who have been—the people in the past, they’re now retired—who would track down some of these Islamic terrorists.

MR. RUSSERT:  But it...

MR. GIULIANI:  You know, kind of a very positive relationship.

MR. RUSSERT:  People are calling into question your judgment.  They also cite that your law firm, your law firm did work for Hugo Chavez, the head of Venezuela.  They’ve now, they’ve now quit that, but they did represent Citgo, which is run by Hugo Chavez.

MR. GIULIANI:  That’s, that’s a stretch.

MR. RUSSERT:  It’s not!

MR. GIULIANI:  No, no, no...

MR. RUSSERT:  One more—no, one more and I’m going to give you a chance on this.  One more.  A Las Vegas developer that you worked with who had a close partnership with Hong Kong billionaire who was close to Kim Jong-Il.  These are all accusations being made in a very serious way about your business.

MR. GIULIANI:  Not serious.  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  So in order to deal with all this, why not say to the American people, “These are all my clients.  This is who I work for...”

MR. GIULIANI:  Yes, I’ve...

MR. RUSSERT:  “...so you can know who I’ve been involved with and who might be trying to influence me if I ever became president.”

MR. GIULIANI:  OK.  First, let me see if I can address both, both of those. The relationship you’re talking about with the, with the Singapore company, it’s a, it’s a partnership that this company had independent of what we were doing for them, and I think the person involved, if, if it’s correct, was a 1 percent owner that had no involvement with us, we never worked for, had nothing to do with.  When you, when you deal with clients and you take on the problems of clients and you try to help them, it may be that somewhere, someplace they did something that was questionable or arguably questionable. These, these are things people aren’t even convicted of.  So you can’t, you can’t vouch for every single thing they did.  They thing that, the things we have done with them are honorable, ethical, useful and, and helpful.

MR. RUSSERT:  Make your list...

MR. GIULIANI:  Now, now...

MR. RUSSERT:  ...public so people know who you...

MR. GIULIANI:  OK, we’re going to get to that.  We’re going to get to that. And what was the earlier one you asked me about?

MR. RUSSERT:  Hugo Chavez.

MR. GIULIANI:  Law firm did—never represented Hugo Chavez.  They represented—wait, wait—they represented an American company, Citgo, in Texas, that employs maybe 100,000 people, 120,000 people, that sells gasoline, needs to comply with the law.  They represented them just in Texas, and then they stopped representing them.  And they—not a direct representation of Hugo Chavez.  That’s a very unfair way to say it.  This is an American company that, when you count out all the gas stations and everything else, the 125,000 Americans...

MR. RUSSERT:  But you stopped doing it.

MR. GIULIANI:  Only because these things are done in a very, very unfair way. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.  So you want to know about my clients.  Just about every single client of Giuliani Partners, which is my security company, has been discussed, has been examined, certainly every significant one.  Law firm clients, the ones that I’ve been involved with, I think have been discussed.  I can’t say.  Now, why don’t you just put out a list of all of them.  Because you have confidentiality agreements with clients.  Clients come to a law firm—law firm is a bigger issue here than...

MR. RUSSERT:  But I’m talking about your, let’s talk about your Giuliani Partners.

MR. GIULIANI:  Consulting firm, just about every single client...

MR. RUSSERT:  Why not put out a list to make people...

MR. GIULIANI:  Because they’re, because they also have, in some cases, some have gotten out where there were confidentiality agreements, but they’ve gotten out for other reasons.

MR. RUSSERT:  But you’re still receiving money from your firm.

MR. GIULIANI:  But I’m not involved in the day-to-day operations.  I’m an owner of the firm.

MR. RUSSERT:  But you’re receiving money.  If people could sign up to—for your company in order to influence you if you became president.  Why not just sever ties and put out a list of all your clients?

MR. GIULIANI:  Well, first of all, I, I, I couldn’t do that.  I mean, I couldn’t put out a list of all my clients.  There are confidentiality agreements that surround the relationship that businesses have with law firms, in particular, in some cases with security firms.  So I can’t do that.  All, all I can tell you is the following:  I can tell you that every client of GP of any significance while I was there, while I was involved in the day-to-day, day-to-day operations of it has been discussed, significant number of the Bracewell, Giuliani clients have been discussed, and the reality is that none of them amount to anything other than ethical, lawful, decent work done by both companies, sometimes of the highest standards, always ethical and decent. And none of them involve any kind of conflict of any kind.  And as we go along, we’ll explore more of it.

MR. RUSSERT:  You won’t sever your ties, your financial ties with your company.

MR. GIULIANI:  Well, I’m an owner.  I mean, I’ve...

MR. RUSSERT:  But while you’re, while you’re...

MR. GIULIANI:  ...severed every—well, I’ve severed, I’ve severed every tie I can think of.  I’ll live up to whatever ethical or legal obligations required. We do all the financial disclosures.  I did a very complete financial disclosure, I think it was in May.  I’ll do some more complete financial disclosures.  But I’m, I’m not going to do more than what is absolutely required, and we’ll go further than that.

MR. RUSSERT:  You ran for mayor, you released your tax returns.  Would you do that?

MR. GIULIANI:  At the right time.  At the right time we’ll consider doing that.

MR. RUSSERT:  What’s the right time?

MR. GIULIANI: The right time is not now.  The right time is when we get to financial...

MR. RUSSERT:  If you get nominated?

MR. GIULIANI:  ...when we get to financial disclosure.  We’ll see what is the appropriate financial disclosure.  What have other people done?  What are other people going to do?  What is the right standard?  Here’s the thing we will definitely do.  We’ll obviously meet all of the standards that the law requires, and then we’ll take a look and see should we go beyond that?  Is there a reason to go beyond that?  And if there is, we will.  The thing I will commit myself to, obviously, is meeting all the standards, which are pretty darned high.  We will meet all of those, like everybody else has, and then we’ll take a look at what the right thing to do is.

MR. RUSSERT:  We’re going to take a quick break.  More of our discussion with Mayor Rudy Giuliani right after this.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT:  More of our Meet the Candidates 2008 series.  Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Republican candidate for president, after this.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT:  And we’re back with Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York.

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