Trump’s lawyer Giuliani (pictured) feeds further conflict over Trump-Russia investigation
Giuliani Tips Off Fears of Trump’s Perjury
Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani continues his five-day media campaign which — far from sweeping away controversies, as he and Trump intended — has only fed them.
On Sunday, Giuliani said Trump can defy a subpoena by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify in the Trump-Russia investigation.
“We don’t have to,” Giuliani asserted in a rambling, 20-minute interview with ABC News. “He’s the president of the United States. We can assert the same privileges other presidents have.”
Giuliani said he and another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, agreed that Trump should not speak to Mueller. He said he was worried that Trump might be trapped into committing perjury.
However, he said that he had little control over Trump, who has said he is “100%” ready to speak with the Special Counsel — and that he could not be sure that Trump would not invoke the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination:
How can I ever be confident of that?
I’m facing a situation with the president and all the other lawyers are, in which every lawyer in America thinks he would be a fool to testify, I’ve got a client who wants to testify.
More Trump Payments to More Women?
Giuliani also compounded trouble for Trump with more statements about payoffs to women who have claimed sexual encounters with the President.
The attorney started the furor last Wednesday when, in a misguided TV effort to sweep away the Stormy Daniels story, he acknowledged that Trump — contrary to the President’s statements — had known about the $130,000 payoff to the porn star, 11 days before the 2016 election.
See Podcast: How Trump and Giuliani’s TV Strategy Failed Over Stormy Daniels Payoff
On Sunday, Giuliani said it was possible that Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen had made additional payments to other women to silence them about affairs with the President.
“I have no knowledge of that,” Giuliani said. “But I would think if it was necessary, yes.”
Earlier Giuliani had fumbled the opening question about Daniels, saying he was not involved in the case and insisting, “It’s history. It [was] not about the campaign….Case closed.”
The attorney indicated that there could be more televised adventures as he echoed Donald Trump’s initial attempts to explain away the misfiring statements, “He”ll get his facts straight.”
Trapped into a series of contradictions over his statements across the past week, Giuliani told ABC, “I’m learning here….My issue is getting up to speed on the facts here. I’m about half way there.”
After his interview, Giuliani met with his client at Trump’s golf club in northern Virginia.
