Rudy Giuliani: ‘I’m more of a Jew than (George) Soros is.’

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed that he is “more of a Jew” than George Soros, a Jewish billionaire and Holocaust survivor, in comments reported Monday.

In an interview published by New York Magazine, Giuliani portrayed Soros, who is also a prominent Democratic donor, as someone who pulled strings in Ukraine, including with ousted former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Soros has repeatedly been the target of conspiracy theories.

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“He put all four ambassadors there. And he’s employing the FBI agents,” Giuliani claimed. “Don’t tell me I’m anti-Semitic if I oppose him.”

“Soros is hardly a Jew. I’m more of a Jew than Soros is. I probably know more about — he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t go to religion — synagogue. He doesn’t belong to a synagogue, he doesn’t support Israel, he’s an enemy of Israel. He’s elected eight anarchist DA’s in the United States. He’s a horrible human being,” Giuliani continued.

NBC News asked Giuliani about his comments, to which he reportedly replied, “I’m more Jewish than half my friends.”

The former New York mayor was raised Roman Catholic.

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Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, replied to the comments via Twitter: “Opposing Soros isn’t what’s #antiSemitic. Saying that he controls ambassadors, employs FBI agents and isn’t ‘Jewish enough’ to be demonized is.”

During her testimony in front of lawmakers on Capitol Hill during the impeachment inquiry, Dr. Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official, spoke on the conspiracy theories surrounding Soros, calling them the “longest-running anti-Semitic trope that we have in history” and “the new Protocols of The Elders of Zion.”

“When I saw this happening to Ambassador Yovanovitch again, I was furious, because this is, again, just this whipping up of what is frankly an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about George Soros to basically target nonpartisan career officials, and also some political appointees as well, because I just want to say this: This is not indiscriminate in its attacks,” she said. 

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Giuliani has emerged to be a key player in the events that led to Trump’s impeachment and additionally has become the subject of a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors. 

The investigation focuses in part on Giuliani’s work with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. The Soviet-born business associates and legal clients helped Giuliani seek damaging information in Ukraine about the family of Joe Biden, the former U.S. vice president who is vying to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election, and charges that they schemed to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to U.S. political candidates and campaign committees.

“If they are (investigating me), they’re idiots. Then they really are a Trump-deranged bunch of silly New York liberals.” Giuliani said in the interview of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which he used to run in the 1980s.

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