THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

Rudy Giuliani probably doesn't need to become entwined in a second international scandal, considering that he's under criminal investigation for his role in Ukraine, and that he texted reporters on Tuesday stating that "no one" is representing him following his split with his lawyer and former Watergate prosecutor Jon Sale. But according to a report from the Washington Post, in 2017, he pushed the president to extradite Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen from his compound in Pennsylvania so often that White House aides, according to the paper, "worried that Giuliani was making the case on behalf of the Turkish government."

With the Gülen push -- and a previously reported effort to pressure former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to stop the prosecution of a Turkish-Iranian trader -- the accusation that Giuliani has been running a shadow foreign policy shop gains momentum, as he draws himself into the scrutiny surrounding the Trump administration's convenient bending to Turkish interests.

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