Giuliani on work for foreign nations: ‘Nuts’ to compare me to Clinton

Rudy Giuliani defended himself against criticism of his paid work for foreign countries late this week, saying that comparisons of himself to Hillary Clinton are “nuts.”

{mosads}”What I did violated no laws, no regulations,” the former New York City mayor told CNN. “It was a perfectly legal, lawful, thing to do. And also these comparisons to Hillary Clinton are nuts because I was in private business.

“I was not—there’s no conflict with anything. I’m not a government official. I’m in private business. And finally, I wasn’t selling influence. I was selling my expertise. And the services of my company.”

Giuliani, who has been floated as a possible Cabinet pick for President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, contacted CNN after the network ran a story about work he did consulting for Serbian politicians who had previously been tied to Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 while on trial for alleged war crimes.

“I didn’t go in there and give a public relations address,” Giuliani said. “I went there and gave a highly substantive speech on what happens to be one of the areas of knowledge which is perfectly lawful. I don’t know what it is that I did wrong. Or how you can paint it is as wrong.”

Giuliani also argued that he was being “courageous” by giving the speech because he said he had been in favor of the NATO bombing campaign of the former Yugoslavia.

Giuliani also pointed to his friendship Viktor Yushchenko, the former president of Ukraine who survived being poisoned in an assassination attempt that many believe was the result of his adversarial relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The former mayor said he became friends with Yuschenko during a trip to Ukraine and had been told not to meet with him.

“I said, ‘F–k you, I’ll meet with him,'” Giuliani said. “And I did. And they took away my security and almost didn’t let me out the country. And that’s before the poor man was poisoned. He and his wife have become good friends of mine. And what I am upset about is the attacks on my reputation.”

After being floated as a possible candidate for secretary of State in the Trump administration, Giuliani has been criticized for consulting and giving speeches in a number of foreign countries after leaving the mayor’s office.

He told CNN that the experience helped familiarize him with world leaders and that he wasn’t paid to lobby or use his influence on behalf of any country but was rather consulted as an “expert on crime reduction, city development” and financial law.

“They make try to make it sound like I’m a world traveling lobbyist and what I am is a world traveling expert of crime reduction, terrorism, economic development and various aspects of international law and American law that is now becoming international law,” Giuliani said.