Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks in Portsmouth, N.H. (Associated Press)
Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump’s lawyers, said Wednesday that the president’s legal team is focused on encouraging special counsel Robert Mueller to end his Russia investigation.
“Our strategy is … to do everything we can to try to convince Mueller to wrap the damn thing up, and if he’s got anything, show us,” Giuliani told Yahoo News in a phone interview. “If he doesn’t have anything, you know, write your report, tell us what you have, and we’ll deal with it. He can’t prosecute him [Trump]. All he can do is write a report about him, so write the g--damned thing and get it over with now.”
Giuliani said he believes there is no further reason to probe into Russian efforts to influence the election in Trump's favor.
“I’ve seen their questions. There’s nothing to look at. They could look at collusion for the next 30 years and, unless they get somebody to lie, they’re not going to find any evidence of it because it didn’t happen,” Giuliani said.
“I think he’s desperately trying to come up with some smoke and mirrors so he can say there’s some form of collusion. I don’t think he can do it,” Giuliani said of Mueller. “I saw a prosecutor that was on a fishing expedition as opposed to somebody that has a solid piece of evidence and wants to nail you with it. It’s like something you’d do at a beginning of a case, not the end.”
“I saw a prosecutor that was on a fishing expedition as opposed to somebody that has a solid piece of evidence and wants to nail you with it."READ: MICHAEL COHEN SENTENCING MEMO FILED BY PROSECUTORS
— Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Trump
He suggested a crime could have taken place only if Trump was directly involved in efforts by Russia to hack Democrats’ emails during the 2016 campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies have said the Kremlin orchestrated hacking efforts to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump.
Giuliani’s comments came hours after Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in relation to several charges, including lying to Congress about a tower Trump sought to build in Moscow, tax evasion and making payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
“The president’s not a lawyer. The simple fact is that it’s not a criminal violation of the campaign finance law,” said Giuliani of the alleged payments.
During FBI raids, agents seized tapes made by Cohen of conversations with Trump and others.
“Cohen is a completely dishonorable person. … I’ve never heard of a lawyer that tape-recorded their client without the client’s permission, and I’ve known some pretty scummy lawyers,” Giuliani said. “You don’t exist very long in the legal profession if you go around taping your client.”
"I’ve never heard of a lawyer that tape-recorded their client without the client’s permission, and I’ve known some pretty scummy lawyers."He also chimed in on Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation, though Manafort was accused by Mueller last month of violating the terms of the agreement by lying about contacts he had with the Trump administration.
— Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Trump
MUELLER FILING: MANAFORT LIED ABOUT CONTACTS WITH TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
“In Manafort’s case, they really should give up at this point. I mean, how much do you want to do to the guy? Do you want to waterboard him? I mean, come on, you have him in solitary confinement," Giuliani said. "They take him out every other day. He knows exactly what he has to say to get out, but he says, you know, ‘I’m not going to say it because it’s not true.’ Gee, is it possible maybe he’s right — it isn’t true?”
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