Rudy Giuliani is no stranger to being fact-checked by news outlets and journalists, but even fellow Trump ally Steve Bannon cut off the attorney during a Friday interview.
Bannon, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump during his final days in office and promoted the January 6 rally that preceded the U.S. Capitol riot, invited Trump attorney Giuliani to his War Room podcast to discuss the ex-president's impeachment defense.
While Giuliani said he'd be unable to defend his client in the Senate trial because he was a witness who spoke at the rally, he pushed claims that an anti-Trump Republican group, the Lincoln Project, helped rioters storm the Capitol.
"The defense is going to have to show that this thing was planned and a lot of the people involved in the planning, antifa and even some right-wing groups, were enemies of his," Giuliani said. "And they were doing it in order to hurt him. Including some right-wing groups that operate for the Lincoln Project or have been working with the Lincoln Project at various times."
Bannon then made his first attempt to call out Giuliani for the unsubstantiated claim, asking the former New York City mayor whom he was referring to.
"Hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa—what are you saying 'working for the Lincoln Project?' Right-wing groups like who?" Bannon interrupted.
Unwilling to name his source, Giuliani said, "One of the people who organized is well known for having worked with the Lincoln Project in the past." Bannon then cut him off again to ask him to identify the person.
Giuliani insisted that he should be allowed to finish and went on to reassert a claim that this unnamed individual "had the same motivation the antifa people had."
Asked by Bannon a third time who is working with the Lincoln Project, Giuliani said, "I don't know if I can reveal his name because we have that from anonymous sources, but he worked in the past for [Senator Mitt] Romney."
The former Trump adviser is heard laughing at Giuliani's response before telling him, "This is why we're getting blown up all the time. You can't throw a charge out there like that and say, 'Yeah, I've got a double-secret probation guy who I can't mention but he worked for Romney and he worked for the Lincoln Project.'"
Giuliani has been known to get himself into hot water after making far-reaching allegations with little evidence. He is currently facing a $1.3 billion dollar defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems, one of the country's largest voting-machine manufacturers, for creating "a viral disinformation campaign" of "demonstrably false" allegations surrounding election fraud.
On Twitter, the Lincoln Project mocked Giuliani's remarks, referring to his "trial by combat" remark during the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the riot. The GOP group also called him out for pivoting to his accusation that "it was the Lincoln Project's fault" three weeks later.
Newsweek reached out to the Lincoln Project for comment but did not hear back before publication.
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January 30, 2021 at 04:16AM
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Steve Bannon Cuts Off Rudy Giuliani's Claim That Lincoln Project Helped Capitol Rioters - Newsweek
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