Rudy Giuliani takes an official NYC trip to Israel aboard Donald Trump’s luxury jet, three months after the September 11th terrorist attack. He’s joined by girlfriend Judith “Judi” Nathan, local law enforcement officers, and several others.
Some reports claim that Trump offered his jet to Giuliani while others say Giuliani asked to borrow it.
Giuliani tells the press he asked to borrow the jet because it’s faster than flying commercial, but that doesn’t explain why he took Trump’s jet. Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg had invited Giuliani to fly on his own jet with Gov. George Pataki and himself. The mayor’s office says there was a scheduling conflict.
The official purpose for the trip is to meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and show support to Israel following recent attacks from suicide bombers.
City officials later tell The New York Times that the trip was funded by private donors and that Trump was reimbursed by New York businessman and financier Jeffrey Silverman and Israeli businessman Daniel Ben-Naim.
”I think it’s a wonderful thing for Israel and a wonderful thing for New York and I was happy to be able to do it so quickly,” Mr. Trump said. ”His visit was a great success.” Mr. Trump said that he believed his company was reimbursed for expenses but that he did not know by whom or for how much.
The New York Times
This is just another odd incident in the long relationship between Giuliani and Trump which shows Giuliani’s willingness to insert Trump — then a private citizen — into state affairs.
Sarah Kendzior, Gaslit Nation
Jeffrey Silverman’s father-in-law is Mickey Tarnopol, the vice-chairman for investment firm Bear Stearns, where Donald Trump has “mysterious accounts” and where college dropout Jeffrey Epstein was given his first investment job. Silverman commits suicide under strange circumstances less than a later, on September 23, 2002.
Almost as shocking as the suicide, however, was the cause of death: a single gunshot wound to the chest, an unusual method of suicide that could result in the victim’s bleeding for as long as ten minutes before losing consciousness.
New York Magazine
Giuliani, Trump, Bloomberg, Pataki, former governor Hugh Carey, and billionaire banker Ron Perelman attend his funeral, among others.
External Sources
Gaslit Nation – Giuliani and The Unholy Trinity
Photo Foreground: Jennifer Weisbord via New York Post
Photo Background: Pixpoetry