(UPDATED Sunday 3 p.m.)
Rudy Giuliani visited the UConn Law School in Hartford for a forum Thursday titled, “40 Years at the DOJ: A Conversation with Rudy Giuliani,” during which he shared—among other things—that he has no plans at the moment to run for public office again.
He did not, however, rule it out.
But on Thursday the former New York City Mayor and presidential candidate was accompanied on the panel by former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut Kevin O’Connor and former federal prosecutor Marc L. Mukasey, who was a unit chief in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Mukasey also is the son of Judge, U.S. Attorney General, and Giuliani friend Michael Mukasey.
The panel provided advice to law students while answering questions from moderator Evan Flaschen. All three panelists and moderator are employed by Giuliani’s firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, which is based in Houston but has offices around the world with a recently opened location in Hartford. O’Connor is the firm’s newest member, having started in early February after leaving his job in Washington, D.C. with the start of the Obama administration.
Topics discussed during the forum were political appointments (and firings) within the Justice Department and waterboarding, among other things.
The event was photographed and recorded for both CTNewsJunkie and the Journal Inquirer.
Here’s the first of a few audio slideshows from the event. The question here was directed to O’Connor and was related to how—in his job as chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales—he helped prepare Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey for hearings and questions on waterboarding. All three panelists answer the question in the audio slideshow below.
Here’s the second piece of audio from the forum. The question here was related to suggestions that there has been political interference from the Attorney General’s office within the Department of Justice, in terms of political appointments and the removal of attorneys, possibly for political purposes. All three panelists answer the question, starting with O’Connor and followed by Giuliani and then Mukasey in the audio slideshow below.