Meanwhile, one of Giuliani's aids is missing.
Adviser, Katherine Friess, also helped Giuliani woo potential donors to finance Trump’s effort to reverse the results of the election. She helped draft a “strategic communications plan” for a final push to keep Trump in office, a document that became a focus for Jan. 6 investigators and that called for placing paid ads on radio and TV alleging widespread voter fraud. At the same time, Friess warned other Trump aides that their claims about dead people voting in Georgia were weak — but Trump continued to trumpet those claims anyway.Friess, a national security consultant with deep roots in Washington, kept a low profile, but in November and December 2020, she was Giuliani’s jack-of-all-trades. A host of emails and documents exchanged by Friess and other Giuliani aides have been turned over to special counsel Jack Smith, according to a person familiar with the investigation granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive material.
Friess, who did not respond to inquiries, has not been accused of any wrongdoing — by prosecutors or by Congress. And she has not been mentioned in either of the criminal cases charging Trump with conspiring to subvert the election. Two Georgia election workers who are suing Giuliani for defamation tried unsuccessfully to subpoena and depose her. But after searching for her for months, they gave up, saying Friess “vanished.”
The House Jan. 6 select committee also sought to depose Friess but never managed to secure her testimony. She sued to block the panel’s investigators from obtaining her phone records — and though they prevailed in the suit, there’s no public indication they ever got them. The emails reviewed by POLITICO — including more than 20 sent or received by Friess herself — depict her as an active figure in Giuliani’s effort who feared what would happen if they failed. And they show that like so many others who have worked for Trump over the decades, Friess struggled to get paid.
In [a] lawsuit, she filed a declaration saying she lives in Colorado and practices law there and in Washington, D.C. Attorney directories in both jurisdictions show her law license — granted in the early 1990s — is inactive.
In other emails reviewed by POLITICO, Friess repeatedly sought payment for her work. On Dec. 26, 2020, she wrote to Kerik: “I am resending my first invoice, as I received a check from Trump for President, Inc., but it was for $905, which is $15,000 short of the full amount. Would be grateful if you could kindly check on that please.” Over the following weeks, Friess sent more emails looking to get paid — both for her work and for hotel and airfare costs she paid out of pocket. But there’s no sign she was ever made whole. Filings with the Federal Election Commission show the Trump campaign paid her firm just $905.
The attorney who represented Friess against the Jan. 6 committee subpoena, Ray Mansolillo, told POLITICO he no longer represents her.
More recently, two Georgia election workers sought to depose Friess in a defamation lawsuit against Giuliani. Over the course of four months, they looked for her at “six different addresses,” contacted attorneys who had represented her in other cases, and emailed her at five email accounts she has used. Though subpoenas must typically be served in person, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell authorized the plaintiffs, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, to serve the subpoena on Friess via “alternative” methods, including via email and all of her known addresses, as well as to Mansolillo. But they still struck out.
Trump owes her $15,000, people right and left are trying to have her served, her law licenses are inactive, and nobody can find her. Sounds like everything is on the up-and-up.
