rudolph w. giuliani , the former mayor of new york, seemed in a giddy mood when he was interviewed last week on the <u+201c> fox & friends <u+201d> morning television show. tireless if often wildly inaccurate in his attacks on hillary clinton <u+2019>s ethics, health and work as a united states senator and as secretary of state, mr. giuliani has been spending every minute in the public spotlight as a surrogate for donald j. trump . his most remarkable claim is that he has a pipeline into the federal bureau of investigation and that agents tell him they are <u+201c>outraged<u+201d> that they have not been able to bring mrs. clinton and her husband, former president bill clinton, to justice. but his television appearance on tuesday of last week appeared, at the time, to be in a softer hue. brian kilmeade, a fox news host, asked mr. giuliani about the presidential campaign during its last two weeks. <u+201c>does donald trump plan anything except a series of inspiring rallies?<u+201d> mr. kilmeade asked. <u+201c>yes,<u+201d> mr. giuliani replied. another host, ainsley earhardt, jumped in. <u+201c>what?<u+201d> she asked. <u+201c>ha-ha-ha,<u+201d> mr. giuliani laughed. <u+201c>you<u+2019>ll see.<u+201d> appearing to enjoy his own coy reply, mr. giuliani resumed chuckling: <u+201c>ha-ha-ha.<u+201d> <u+201c>when will this happen?<u+201d> ms. earhardt asked. <u+201c>we got a couple of surprises left,<u+201d> mr. giuliani said, smiling. this enigmatic reply roused the show<u+2019>s third host, steve doocy. <u+201c>october surprises?<u+201d> he asked. mr. giuliani expanded a bit. <u+201c>well,<u+201d> he said, <u+201c>i call them early surprises in the way we<u+2019>re going to campaign to get our message out, maybe in a little bit of a different way. you<u+2019>ll see. and i think it<u+2019>ll be enormously effective. and i do think that all of these revelations about hillary clinton finally are beginning to have an impact.<u+201d> three days later, james b. comey, the director of the f.b.i., said agents were reviewing emails <u+201c>that appear to be pertinent<u+201d> to a closed investigation of mrs. clinton<u+2019>s use of a personal email server while secretary of state. mr. comey said he did not know whether the material was significant but felt congress should know because he had testified at hearings in july about the investigation. against the ceaseless droning buzz of the presidential campaign, mr. comey<u+2019>s revelation boomed like a sudden, unexpected crack of thunder <u+2014> though a poll by the new york times and cbs news released on thursday found that it had not changed people<u+2019>s minds. did mr. giuliani have an inside track on the f.b.i.<u+2019>s discovery of emails, apparently on a laptop belonging to anthony d. weiner, the estranged husband of the clinton aide huma abedin? oh, not at all, said jason miller, a spokesman for the trump campaign. <u+201c>rudy was just having fun,<u+201d> mr. miller said. <u+201c>to keep the other side on their toes.<u+201d> since august, mr. giuliani has publicly claimed that f.b.i. agents were telling him that mrs. clinton should have been criminally charged for the email server. <u+201c>it perplexes numerous f.b.i. agents who talk to me all the time,<u+201d> mr. giuliani said during an august interview with chris cuomo on cnn. <u+201c>and it embarrasses some f.b.i. agents.<u+201d> mr. giuliani has not named the embarrassed or perplexed agents, and as wayne barrett noted in the daily beast on thursday, it is a violation of f.b.i. policy for agents to share investigative information. this week, mr. giuliani opened a new front. he attributed what might be seen as a commonplace difference of opinion about law and evidence to rampant corruption at the highest levels of the justice department, specifically naming the attorney general, loretta e. lynch , who began her career as a prosecutor in the new york area in 1990 and has obtained convictions of politically corrupt republicans and democrats. mr. giuliani provided no substantiation of this grave accusation, but instead staked his claims on information that he said came from unnamed law enforcement sources. <u+201c>you have outraged f.b.i. agents that talk to me,<u+201d> mr. giuliani said in an interview on wednesday with megyn kelly on fox news. <u+201c>they are outraged at the injustice. they are outraged at being turned down by the justice department to open a grand jury. they are convinced that loretta lynch has corrupted the justice department.<u+201d> asked about mr. giuliani<u+2019>s statements, mr. miller said that, in fact, the former mayor had not been speaking with any active f.b.i. agents. <u+201c>he has only had conversations with retired f.b.i. agents who no longer work inside the building,<u+201d> mr. miller said. so mr. giuliani was apparently basing his charges on second- or thirdhand information when he declared, <u+201c>this is worse than watergate.<u+201d> a bit much? maybe. but he is giving joseph mccarthy a run for his money. email: dwyer@nytimes.com twitter: @jimdwyernyt a version of this article appears in print on november 4, 2016, on page a24 of the new york edition with the headline: as trump ally, giuliani boasts of ties to f.b.i. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
as trump ally, rudy giuliani boasts of ties to f.b.i.
jim dwyer