H.R. McMaster was so worried Rudy Giuliani was a foreign agent that he made sure he was in the Oval Office whenever Giuliani visited, book says
Sonam Sheth
2 hours ago
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
Email address
By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Donald Trump's one-time national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, was deeply concerned that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was an agent of a foreign government and made sure he was in the Oval Office whenever Giuliani paid Trump a visit.
That's according to "The Divider: Trump in the White House," by The New York Times' Peter Baker and The New Yorker's Susan Glasser, an advance copy of which was obtained by Insider.
McMaster served as Trump's national security advisor from February 2017 to March 2018. His rocky tenure was marked by frequent spats with Trump over the latter's capitulation to strongmen like Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, said that although most "people think he loves Putin," Erdogan "is the one he loves." Indeed, the Turkish government shelled out millions of dollars to hire people close to Trump's orbit, including his first national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was criminally investigated for working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the 2016 campaign.
And according to "The Divider," McMaster, who succeeded Flynn as a national security advisor, told people he was "so concerned about Trump's friend Rudy Giuliani acting as an 'influence agent' on behalf of Turkish or other interests that he had a policy of making sure he was in the Oval Office whenever the former New York mayor visited."
It wouldn't be the first time Giuliani was suspected of being a foreign agent.
While working as Trump's personal defense attorney, Giuliani spearheaded a campaign to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 US election. His efforts came under prosecutorial scrutiny in 2019 as investigators began examining whether he broke foreign lobbying laws.
Specifically, the Manhattan US attorney's office wanted to know if Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine were carried out solely in his capacity as Trump's lawyer or whether he was also working on behalf of foreign interests who believed they would benefit from Trump's reelection.
Sonam Sheth
2 hours ago
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
- Trump's former national security advisor was worried that Giuliani was a foreign "influence agent."
- That's according to the forthcoming book, "The Divider: Trump in the White House."
- H.R. McMaster was so concerned about Giuliani that he made sure he was in the Oval Office whenever Giuliani visited Trump, the book said.
Email address
By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Donald Trump's one-time national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, was deeply concerned that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was an agent of a foreign government and made sure he was in the Oval Office whenever Giuliani paid Trump a visit.
That's according to "The Divider: Trump in the White House," by The New York Times' Peter Baker and The New Yorker's Susan Glasser, an advance copy of which was obtained by Insider.
McMaster served as Trump's national security advisor from February 2017 to March 2018. His rocky tenure was marked by frequent spats with Trump over the latter's capitulation to strongmen like Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, said that although most "people think he loves Putin," Erdogan "is the one he loves." Indeed, the Turkish government shelled out millions of dollars to hire people close to Trump's orbit, including his first national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was criminally investigated for working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the 2016 campaign.
And according to "The Divider," McMaster, who succeeded Flynn as a national security advisor, told people he was "so concerned about Trump's friend Rudy Giuliani acting as an 'influence agent' on behalf of Turkish or other interests that he had a policy of making sure he was in the Oval Office whenever the former New York mayor visited."
It wouldn't be the first time Giuliani was suspected of being a foreign agent.
While working as Trump's personal defense attorney, Giuliani spearheaded a campaign to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 US election. His efforts came under prosecutorial scrutiny in 2019 as investigators began examining whether he broke foreign lobbying laws.
Specifically, the Manhattan US attorney's office wanted to know if Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine were carried out solely in his capacity as Trump's lawyer or whether he was also working on behalf of foreign interests who believed they would benefit from Trump's reelection.
