WASHINGTON — Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Thursday that his client’s cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller is essentially over.
In an interview with Reuters, Giuliani said President Trump submitted a series of written answers to questions from Mueller in late November regarding the FBI’s probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. Giuliani said when approached by Mueller’s team about answering a new set of follow up questions, he and Trump refused and there has been no contact with Mueller’s team since.
“As far as we’re concerned, everything is over,” Giuliani told Reuters. “We weren’t convinced they had any questions they don’t know the answer to.”
Giuliani then went on to say that what Mueller decides to do with the president’s answers is now up to him. “They could try to subpoena him if they want,” he said. “But they know we could fight that like hell.”
Despite allegations by Democrats, Trump has steadfastly denied any collusion with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
But Democrats cite former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s sentencing last month to three years in prison for crimes including orchestrating “hush money” payments to two of the president’s former lovers in violation of campaign finance laws as proof of misdeeds within the Trump campaign team. As he plead guilty at his sentencing, Cohen claimed he was directed by Trump.
Giuliani says the president did no wrong and that the Cohen and Russia matters are two completely separate issues.
“We have a memo from a number of campaign finance experts that paying what they call hush money, since it has a personal purpose, is not considered a campaign contribution,” Giuliani said. “Therefore it’s not a violation of the campaign finance law.”
In the Reuters interview, Giuliani called for the end of the “witch hunt” against the president and urged Mueller to “put up or shut up”.
“Put up or shut up,” Giuliani said. “We challenge you to do it.”
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