National Security

Giuliani slams ‘out right lie’ by Trump campaign aides

Rudy Giuliani is slamming several campaign aides of former President Trump who, in testimony to the House Jan. 6 panel, described Giuliani as intoxicated on election night and part of an internal campaign team after the election that was dishonest and unprofessional.

The remarks, shown in videos by the select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol riot during a Monday hearing, included criticism of the former New York City mayor and Trump adviser from Trump’s former campaign manager Bill Stepien and former campaign adviser Jason Miller.

Miller was shown on tape responding to a question from the committee about whether anyone on the campaign team who spoke to Trump had drank too much that night. He responded by mentioning Giuliani.

“I am disgusted and outraged at the out right lie by Jason Miller and Bill Steppien,” Giuliani tweeted, misspelling the former campaign manager’s last name.

“I was upset that they were not prepared for the massive cheating (as well as other lawyers around the President) I REFUSED all alcohol that evening. My favorite drink..Diet Pepsi,” Giuliani wrote on Twitter.

“Is the false testimony from Miller and Steppien because I yelled at them? Are they being paid to lie?” he added in a follow-up tweet.

Stepien in his testimony characterized himself as being a part of a “team normal” on the Trump campaign that recognized the Republican had lost the presidential election based on the data at hand.

“There were two groups … we call them kind of my team and Rudy’s team. I didn’t mind being characterized as being part of ‘Team Normal,’” the former campaign manager, who was unable to appear in person after his wife went into labor on Monday, said on videotape.

“I didn’t think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that time,” he said of the other group.

Miller testified that he had offered advice not to declare victory prematurely while votes were being counted.

“There were suggestions by, I believe it was Mayor Giuliani, to go and declare victory and say that we’d won it outright,” Miller said. “I remember saying that … we should not go and declare victory until we had a better sense of the numbers.”

He also said that he believed Giuliani appeared to be intoxicated on election night while he spoke to officials from the White House and campaign.

“I think the mayor was definitely intoxicated, but I do not know his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president, for example,” Miller said.

Stepien told the committee he had expressed concerns about Giuliani and Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s statements following 2020 election, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said during the Monday hearing.

Giuliani made headlines in the months after the election by repeatedly pushing false theories to push back at Trump’s loss in the election.

The Jan. 6 panel is setting out a narrative that argues Trump’s false statements about the election eventually led to the attack by a mob of his supporters on the Capitol on Jan. 6. Lawmakers at the time were in the process of certifying the results of the election.