World enews: Rudy Giuliani calls claims of his alcohol problem a ‘big lie’

Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani defended himself in the wake of a bombshell report about his alleged drinking habits, calling the claim a “big damn lie.”

“I do not have an alcohol problem. I have never had an alcohol problem,” Mr Giuliani said during a press conference in Concord, New Hampshire on Wednesday. A recent New York Times report included discussions with sources close to Mr Giuliani who described his drinking tendencies as getting worse following his presidential primary defeat — including his tenure working for Donald Trump.

He said that if he had “an alcohol problem, I should be in the Guinness Book of World Records,” referencing his accomplishments and career. “Nobody could have achieved that if they did” have a drinking problem.

The man once known as “America’s Mayor” added: “I was working 24 hours a day. It’s a big damn lie.”

At the press conference, Mr Giuliani reportedly called the Times a “disgrace.”

Given the former mayor’s proximity to Mr Trump, special counsel Jack Smith is reportedly probing how much the former president knew about how inebriated Mr Giuliani supposedly was as he was giving him strategic and legal advice.

The January 6 committee previously uncovered that Mr Giuliani may have been drunk on election night when he advised Mr Trump to not accept defeat to Joe Biden — and numerous former aides to Mr Trump have testified saying so.

The news of his alleged drinking habits arrived at the same time that Mr Giuliani sued President Biden for defamation when he used the phrase “Russian pawn” during a presidential debate in 2020.

The former mayor says that statement has cost him “millions and millions of dollars” from lost clients and consulting business. At the same press conference on 4 October, Mr Giuliani said, “Joe Biden has spent his life telling lies” and “getting away with it.”

“He called me a Russian operative … That is a lie, that is false,” he added. “He owes me a lot of money in a lot of states.”

The ex-Trump attorney faces a series of legal battles himself, including the Georgia election case, a sexual assault lawsuit brought by Noelle Dunphy, and owing election workers tens of thousands after defaming them.