Giuliani was brought on to assist Zarrab in 2017. He traveled to Turkey with his former law partner Michael Mukasey and attempted to strike a deal with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to secure the release of their jailed client, alarming the federal prosecutor leading the case.
Giuliani and Mangas were both employed by Greenberg Traurig at the time. The firm and Mangas had registered with the Justice Department to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of Turkey, according to an affidavit from Mangas.
Mangas did not return a request for comment.
Giulianis conversation partner can be heard responding to the $20,000 comment. But its possible to make out only the beginning of his answer, and even that is somewhat garbled.
Id say even if Bahrain could get, Im not sure how good [unintelligible words] with his people, the man says.
Yeah, okay, Giuliani says.
You want options? I got options, the man says.
Yeah give me options, Giuliani replies.
The exchange took place at the 2:20 mark in the voicemail message. The other man does most of the talking in the remaining 40 seconds, and its difficult to piece together what he says.
The late-night Giuliani butt dial came 18 days after a mid-afternoon Giuliani butt dial.
The first one happened when the NBC News reporter was at a fifth-birthday party for an extended family member in central New Jersey.