Rudy Giuliani has called on Special Counsel Robert Mueller to ‘wrap up’ his probe into Russian collusion in the 2016 Presidential election.
The call comes after Trump’s lawyer revealed he had been told by Mueller’s team they would not be able to indict President Donald Trump due to a longstanding rule that a sitting President is immune from such treatment.
‘It’s been a year, [Mueller] has gotten more than 1.4 million documents, he’s interviewed 28 witnesses, and he has nothing,’ Giuliani told Fox News.
‘It’s about time to get the darn thing over with. It’s about time to say, “Enough. We’ve tortured this President enough”.’
Rudy Giuliani has called on Special Counsel Robert Mueller to end his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election
Mueller’s team will ‘only be able to write a report’. Giuliani claims, due to an old untested rule that a sitting President cannot be indicted
The former New York City Mayor said the investigation was ‘not good for the American people’, and said Mueller and his team were ‘interfering with things that are much bigger than them or us’.
He also said Trump’s legal team were ‘ready to rip apart’ Mueller’s report if they deemed it unfair.
Mueller’s report, if combined with damning evidence, could lead to Trump being impeached by Congress.
The investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 Presidential election was launched a year ago and has spent an estimated $10million in taxpayer funds so far.
Giuliani gloated in an earlier interview with CNN that Mueller’s investigation was essentially pointless.
‘All they get to do is write a report,’ he said.
‘They can’t indict. At least they acknowledged that to us after some battling, they acknowledged that to us.’
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani says the Mueller investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia has acknowledged it cannot indict the president, whatever evidence it finds
The inability to indict a sitting president has existed since the Nixon administration, and was reaffirmed in a memo during the Clinton administration, but the rule has never been tested in court.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told CNN he thinks it could be possible to test the rule in court, as ‘the President is not above the law’.
‘An indictment – if that’s the course Robert Mueller chooses to go – I believe would be upheld by the courts,’ he said.
Regardless of whether Mueller will be able to indict Trump or not, it is possible the President could be impeached if the investigation finds damning evidence.
The former director of the FBI’s report, and the evidence behind it, could serve as the basis for impeachment of the president in Congress.
But based off that report and any evidence gathered from the investigation, it is possible Trump could be impeached by Congress
But no one knows if Mueller’s team has any strong evidence of collusion with the Russians, or of Trump actively obstructing the investigation.
The special prosecutor has for months been in talks with Trump’s legal team over whether the president would accept to be interviewed.
If Trump refuses, Mueller could be forced to issue a subpoena to force him to testify, which could spark a legal battle of its own.
Although the precedent of the 1970s Watergate case says that presidential records can be subpoenaed, some scholars say that precedent might not extend to forcing the president himself to testify.
If there is a battle over the issue, it would likely end up in the Supreme Court.
Peter Carr, spokesman for Mueller, refused to comment on Giuliani’s remarks.
Mueller has been in talks with Trump’s legal team for months over whether he will be able to interview the President. If he cannot, he could issue a subpoena, but that could spark a separate legal battle