Rudy Giuliani claimed Friday that President Trump kept personal attorney Michael Cohen on board his legal team because he felt “sorry” for him.
“I don’t want to get him angry, I think the president felt sorry for him because he never could quite have the standing of the lawyers,” Giuliani, the former New York city mayor working as a lawyer for Trump, told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton during an interview with “Rising.”
“All of the important matters would go to other lawyers, so he’d give him things to do that were more in the nature of public relations, but some small legal matters,” he continued.
Giuliani also pushed back on claims that Cohen never asked for a presidential pardon.
“The man never asked for a pardon — perjury,” the Trump’s attorney told Hill.TV.
Cohen’s team team admitted Wednesday that he asked Trump’s lawyers about a potential presidential pardon last year after the FBI raided his home and office.
Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis issued a statement, saying that at the time Cohen was open to the “ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives.”
This statement appears to contradict Cohen’s sworn testimony last week, when he said that he had “never” asked for a pardon from Trump.
Following these new revelations, House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said Thursday that he needs to revisit Cohen’s remarks under oath before deciding whether to refer him to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
Cohen, meanwhile, is awaiting a three-year prison sentence for financial crimes and charges related to hush money payments to women alleging to have had affairs with Trump. The president recently acknowledged the payments but claimed that the act didn’t constitute a campaign finance violation.
—Tess Bonn
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