Rudy Giuliani To Join Trump's Legal Team: Reports

NEW YORK, NY — He didn't get a cabinet job, but Rudy Giuliani found a way to Washington. The former New York City mayor is joining President Donald Trump's legal team to help navigate Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian election interference, according to news reports Thursday.

"I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller," Giuliani told The Washington Post.

Giuliani, a Republican who served as mayor from 1994 to 2001, is reportedly joining the president's personal legal team about a month after the departure of John Dowd, who had led the squad.

Giuliani is expected to join fellow lawyers Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb on the team "immediately," according to The Wall Street Journal. He told the Post he'll take a leave from Greenberg Traurig, the high-profile law firm where he works.

The former mayor decided to help Trump, whom he enthusiastically supported in the 2016 election, after a recent dinner at the president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the Post reported. Giuliani spoke with Sekulow and Trump on Thursday to hash out a legal strategy going forward, he told the Post.

Mueller's investigation has circled around Trump and led to the indictment of 13 Russians who worked to sow division and support Trump's campaign. Three former Trump aides — Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser — have pleaded guilty to charges Mueller brought. A fourth, Paul Manafort, has pleaded not guilty.

Giuliani, who ran for president himself in 2008, was reportedly considered a candidate for Trump's secretary of state in 2016 before he withdrew his name from consideration.

(Lead image: Rudy Giuliani appears at Trump Tower in January 2017. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)