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Donald Trump has had trouble finding any decent lawyers who are willing to work with him on the Russia probe, so he’s finally decided to let his pal Rudy Giuliani come on board. But what exactly is Giuliani’s role going to be? Here are three takes:

New York Times: Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and longtime friend of President Trump, will join the president’s legal team in an effort to “quickly” resolve the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference and possible ties to Trump associates.

Wall Street Journal: In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said his first task after joining the team will be to “find out what Bob Mueller needs” to complete the investigation. “I’m pretty sure we can comply with it,” he said. Mr. Trump’s legal team has “worked so hard to get this done. Hopefully we can speed it up,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Washington Post: “I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview.

Giuliani wants to “quickly” resolve the investigation. He wants to “speed it up.” And he wants to “negotiate an end” to it. In other words, he’s less a lawyer than he is an ambassador to Robert Mueller. And apparently he thinks he can wrap things up in just a few weeks.

Okey doke.

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It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

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We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

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