President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani made another attempt on Sunday to put straight the President’s story, raising instead a number of questions as to whether Trump had paid hush money to other mistresses as well. He further indicated that his client may invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying in the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
The former New York City mayor and federal prosecutor presented special counsel Robert Mueller as a prosecutor who is out of control, reinforcing President Trump’s claims that the Russia investigation is nothing more than a “witch hunt” and a “trap” to get the President to commit perjury under oath. Therefore, Giuliani said, Trump could defy a subpoena by the special counsel.
“We don’t have to,” Giuliani said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program. “He’s the President of the United States. We can assert the same privileges other presidents have.”
He added that Mueller’s prosecutors don’t have “a case on collusion” or obstruction of justice, reiterating Trump’s claim that he is willing to testify before the special counsel, but only if he is treated fairly.
“I have a client who wants to testify … So he may testify and we may actually work things out with Bob Mueller,” Giuliani stated.
However, he also noted that after meeting with Mueller, he and another lawyer, Jay Sekulow, agreed that the President should not speak to him and that he “would be a fool” to do so. “I came into this case with a desire to [have the President talk to Mueller] and they just keep convincing me not to do it,” Giuliani said of the special counsel’s team, referring to the leak of questions that Mueller intends to ask Trump.
Should Trump invoke the Fifth Amendment, he would undercut his longstanding claim that he has nothing to hide about his campaign’s ties to Russia. During his presidential campaign, Trump maintained that only “the mob takes the Fifth.”
Giuliani also told Stephanopoulos on “This Week” that he expects Trump’s former, longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to cooperate with the Mueller investigation, suggesting that he has no concerns about anything Cohen could say.
“Michael Cohen doesn’t have any incriminating evidence on the president or himself,” Giuliani said. “He’s an honest, honorable lawyer.”
He did, however, say that it was possible that Cohen had made additional payments to other women on the President’s behalf, The New York Times reports.
“I have no knowledge of that,” Giuliani said when asked about other payments, “but I would think if it was necessary, yes.”
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