President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said the origins of the special counsel’s investigation were illegitimate and defended his client’s political attacks against the probe.
Giuliani spoke to CNN’s “State of the Union” host Dana Bash, telling her that Robert Mueller himself provided the material they needed to undermine the investigation.
“They’re giving us the material to do it. Of course, we have to do it in defending the President. To a large extent, remember Dana, what we’re doing here, it is the public opinion, because eventually, the decision here is going to be impeach or not impeach,” Giuliani said.
He further maintained that the probe was based on former FBI Director James Comey’s leaked memos, which in itself is “illegitimate,” adding that there was not enough evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.
“You get the Comey thing, which is the leak of a confidential memo, which is illegal for an FBI official to do. I’m not saying Mueller is illegitimate. I’m saying the basis on which he was appointed was illegitimate,” Giuliani commented.
He also said that the special counsel’s probe was no longer legitimate, providing as a reason for its discrediting reports of an FBI informant within the Trump campaign. However, Giuliani claimed President Trump is “adamant” that he sits for an interview with Mueller.
According to him, during the interview, the special counsel is most likely to ask questions regarding collusion and obstruction of justice. Giuliani added, however, that he wasn’t comfortable with an interview addressing obstruction because Trump could be implicated over an interpretation of a comment he made about firing Comey.
“If you interpret his comment about firing … Comey … If you interpret that as obstructing the investigation, as opposed to removing a guy who was doing a bad job, on the recommendation, in part, of (Deputy Attorney General Rod) Rosenstein, but you see it as obstructing the investigation, then you can say it is obstruction,” the former New York City mayor said. “And then you can say it is perjury, which is even easier for them, which is where I think, if they are sneaky, they are going.”
Separately, Giuliani noted that the President will not fire anyone to end the Russia probe because doing so would “look too much like Watergate.”
“The president’s not going to fire them because that would be playing into the hands, of playing the victim, Watergate,” Giuliani told Fox News Sunday. “They’re the Watergate. They’re the people who have committed the crimes,” he added.
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