After a morning of furious Trump tweets angered by the investigation into his campaign team’s alleged collusion with Russian government operatives and Trump’s possible attempts to obstruct it, Rudy Giuliani appeared on television with what he says is a solid plan to end the investigation.
Rudy Giuliani tells NBC News the special counsel team told him they expect to conclude their work by Sept 1. "I think we should both agree that this should be wrapped up by Sept 1st no matter what happens."
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) May 20, 2018
The New York Times reported that Giuliani, the world’s worst legal representative, stated that Special Counsel Robert Mueller confirmed to him that the probe into Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice will be wrapped up by September 1, 2018. The Times did not appear to take the former mayor’s claim at face value.
‘Mr. Giuliani’s comments were an apparent attempt to publicly pressure Mr. Mueller amid their interview negotiations. He urged that the investigation be wrapped up as soon as possible, pointing as a cautionary tale to the revelation by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey in the last days of the 2016 presidential race that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Mr. Comey’s announcement is widely blamed by Democrats for costing her the election. The F.B.I. found no wrongdoing.’
Rudy Giuliani confirms to me Robert Mueller told him about a month ago that the investigation could be wrapped up by September. However he says it was in the context of a discussion about whether President Trump would do an interview- aka a negotiating tactic
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) May 20, 2018
During the interview, Giuliani stuck with Trump’s favorite method of attacking the credibility of those involved with the investigation without being able to attack the facts. The legal spokesman for Trump failed to acknowledge the many very public pieces of the obstruction investigation, which include firing the FBI director responsible for the investigation into Russian attempts to upend the democratic process in 2016, Trump’s statements to Russian diplomats that firing Comey took “pressure” off of him, and the quick crafting of a fake story around Trump, Jr.’s infamous meeting with Kremlin operatives at Trump Tower during the election.
Giuliani says Mueller said a month ago that he *could* wrap up the investigation into obstruction of justice by Sept. 1 *if* Trump sat for an interview. Trump's lawyers don't have the strongest track record of predicting end dates for this probe. https://t.co/y1ydV9XE0q
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 20, 2018
Instead, Giuliani just attacked Comey.
‘Mr. Giuliani sought to frame the outcome of the obstruction investigation as pitting the credibility of one man against another: Mr. Trump vs. Mr. Comey. The president asked Mr. Comey in the early days of the administration to end the investigation into his first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, according to contemporaneous memos and congressional testimony by Mr. Comey. The president’s request is one of the main episodes Mr. Mueller is examining to determine whether Mr. Trump had criminal intent to obstruct the Russia investigation.’
‘We want the concentration of this to be on Comey versus the president’s credibility, and I think we win that and people get that.’
