President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Friday that a special counsel interview of the president is “off the table” — at least for himself.
Giuliani said during an interview on The Hill’s show “Rising” that Trump himself has not ruled out an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, because “he wants to explain himself.”
But Giuliani also said that “as his lawyer” he does not believe Trump should sit down with investigators.
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“It’s never off the table for the president, because he feels he’s done nothing wrong, which he hasn’t, and he wants to explain himself,” Giuliani said on “Rising.” “For me as his lawyer it’s off the table until they can show me what happened.”
Mueller’s team is examining whether members of the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election, as well as whether Trump sought to obstruct the investigation.
For months, prosecutors have tried to negotiate an interview with Trump’s lawyers, which they say is necessary to determine whether the president intentionally tried to obstruct the probe.
Trump’s legal team, however, has advised against such an interview out of concern that the president’s own words could later be used against him. Mueller’s team has already netted guilty pleas from several former Trump campaign officials for lying to investigators.
The president expressed a willingness in January to sit down with special counsel investigators, saying he was “looking forward” to doing so. He has repeatedly called the probe a “witch hunt” and insisted that he has done nothing wrong.
Giuliani also told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that Trump should not sit down with Mueller’s team, because the special counsel investigation is “corrupt,” and demanded that the investigation come to a close.
“Mueller should now make a report, everything he has got,” Giuliani said. “No interview of the president. He shouldn’t be bothered with it. Why would he get interviewed in a corrupt investigation?”