Rudy Giuliani admitted to Politico his call last Thursday night for Justice Department officials to end Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation within 24 hours was just an act.
Giuliani made the remark during an interview with Sean Hannity as the two were discussing the just-released Office of the Inspector General report on the Clinton email investigation.
“I didn’t think it would,” Giuliani told POLITICO with a laugh when asked about the Mueller inquiry’s still being very much an active investigation. “But I still think it should be.”
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Appearing on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Giuliani said Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should “redeem themselves” the next day by shutting down the Mueller inquiry.
“That’s what I’m supposed to do,” Giuliani explained on Monday. “What am I supposed to say? That they should investigate him forever? Sorry, I’m not a sucker.”
The former New York mayor’s aggressive public comments challenging the legitimacy of the Russia investigation and defending the president on both politics and policy have been the source of frequent controversy.
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Amid those outbursts, Giuliani and his colleagues on Trump’s legal team continue to negotiate with Mueller’s office surrounding the possible terms for a sit-down interview.
“We’re pretty close,” Giuliani said, adding that a final decision by the president and his legal team could come in the next two weeks. “I hope maybe before the Fourth [of July]. That might be safer.”
Jane Raskin, a Miami-based attorney who joined the Trump legal team at the same time as Giuliani, has taken the lead in discussing with Mueller key logistical issues surrounding an interview, including the scope of the possible questions and how long Trump would be expected to sit under oath.
Meanwhile, the lawyer who won't stop talking says Trump's campaign manager should not be speaking.
“I wish they’d sit back and keep quiet for a while,” Giuliani, who leads the president’s legal team, told The Daily Beast in a brief interview on Tuesday evening.
The former New York mayor was reacting to comments by Brad Parscale, the president’s reelection campaign manager, who earlier on Tuesday called for the removal of attorney general Jeff Sessions.
“Time to fire Sessions,” Parscale tweeted. “End the Mueller investigation. You can’t obstruct something that was phony against you. The IG report gives @realDonaldTrump the truth to end it all.”
Giuliani said he has not spoke with Parscale or anyone else on the campaign, but said he wouldn’t put much stock in their legal opinions.
“I don’t give them advice, and I sure as hell wouldn’t take any advice from them,” Giuliani said. “They’re not lawyers.”
Giuliani says he would not recommend the president fire his attorney general.
Firing Sessions would be an “unnecessary distraction,” Giuliani said, as has “no role in the investigation.”
Call to suspend Mueller probe was just posturing, Giuliani says (Politico)
Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani to Trump 2020 Campaign Manager Brad Parscale: ‘Keep Quiet’ (The Daily Beast)