Giuliani continues his war of credibility against Cohen

Rudy Giuliani slammed Michael Cohen’s assertion that President Donald Trump knew about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his campaign officials and a Kremlin affiliated lawyer.

‘If he taped everything else, why the heck didn’t he tape this?’ Giuliani said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

He also repeated his assert that Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, is ‘capable of doctoring tapes,’ adding that ‘it seems to me his default position is to lie.’

Rudy Giuliani hit back against reports Michael Cohen will testify President Trump knew of the Trump Tower meeting: ‘If he taped everything else, why the heck didn’t he tape this?’

Giuliani has launched a war of credibility against Cohen

Giuliani has launched a war of credibility against Cohen

Giuliani, who’s serving on Trump’s legal team, has waged a credibility war against Cohen ever since the president’s former fixer was said to have secretly recorded at least one conversation with Trump.  

CNN aired a recording last week that featured Cohen and Trump talking about paying for the rights to the story of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims she had an affair with the president in 2006. Trump denies an affair.

Giuliani, who has spoken warmly of Cohen in the past, said his opinion changed in the wake of the tape.

‘Obviously if I knew what I never would have said he’s a reputable lawyer. I’d have said he’s a scoundrel,’ he noted.

‘The man is a pathological manipulator, liar. I didn’t know that,’ Giuliani said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘I knew nothing bad about Michael Cohen until all of this started to happen in the last couple weeks.’ 

Trump denied on Friday that he had any advance knowledge of the now-infamous 2016 meeting attended by his son Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the Russian attorney.

Reports based on unnamed sources swirled Thursday night that Cohen is prepared to tell Mueller that the president knew about the meeting ahead of time and approved of it. 

Sources close to Cohen, according to CNN, say he is prepared to tell Mueller that he was in the room when Trump was told that a Russian lawyer wanted a meeting with Don Jr.

The lawyer, the Kremlin-connected Natalia Veselnitskaya, promised to bring helpful dirt on Hillary Clinton. 

That June 9, 2016 meeting has become a major headache for the president. Both the meeting and its fallout have become a major part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. 

Giuliani, who has dangled out hope in the past that Trump could sit down with Mueller, said again a deal could happen soon.

‘Maybe this week or maybe next week,’ he said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’

He also said Trump is ‘discussed at length’ on 11 or 12 of those tapes that Cohen has.

Mueller is investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election and whether Trump attempted to obstruct that investigation, particularly when he fired former FBI director James Comey.

‘We don’t see the legal basis for the president obstructing in merely taking action in firing someone he had every right to fire,’ Giuliani said.

He also laughed off any suggestion the president would stop tweeting.

When asked if Trump would lay off his favorite social media network – at least writing about Attorney General Jeff Sessions – in light of a report Mueller is looking at the tweets as part of his probe, Giuliani responded: ‘Good luck about tweeting.’

He added: ‘First of all, obstruction by tweet is not something that I think works real well. Generally obstruction is secret, it’s clandestine, it’s corrupt. You don’t want the evidence out in the public to be used against you.’ 

Cohen found a defender in attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents porn star Stormy Daniels, whose settlement with Trump over an alleged affair Cohen helped negotiate.

‘Rudy – you look desperate, bc you are. What are you & Mr. Trump so afraid of if he did nothing wrong as you claim? Releasing the info in no way damages Cohen’s credibility or usefulness as a witness. But it will severely damage Trump. And we are just getting started. #FightClub,’ Avenatti wrote on Twitter Sunday morning.

He also hinted there are more payments out there.

‘.@RudyGiuliani – Are you denying that there were other hush payments made to as yet unnamed women in connection with the 2016 campaign? Asking for some friends… You better buckle up buttercup because Mr. Trump’s stupidity and disloyalty is about to catch up to him (and you),’ he wrote.

The latest salvos follow an allegation from Giuliani on Saturday that he believes the audio recording released by Cohen  may have been tampered with.

Guiliani made the claim on Saturday evening in a phone interview with Fox News, saying two experts and retired FBI agents who have examined the secret recording believe it was ‘played’ with.

The tape was recorded covertly by Cohen in 2016 prior to the election, and involves discussion of a payment to the National Enquirer to ensure former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s claims of an affair with Trump did not get out. 

Giuliani said he believed that the tape released on Wednesday in a leak to CNN is a recording of a recording, which would mask any signs that Cohen had turned the recorder on and off during the conversation, or had later erased portions.  

Rudy Giuliani has said that he believes a tape released by Michael Cohen may have been tampered with

Rudy Giuliani has said that he believes a tape released by Michael Cohen may have been tampered with

Cohen (center) secretly recorded a meeting with Trump to discuss a payment to suppress an affair allegation from Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal 

Cohen (center) secretly recorded a meeting with Trump to discuss a payment to suppress an affair allegation from Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal 

‘Since we don’t have the original, we asked for it,’ Giuliani told Fox News. ‘Our expert analysis [isn’t] done until we get the raw copy, which we are seeking.’ 

The president’s lawyer confessed that his hopes for actually obtaining the original tapes were thin. The version released by CNN is of notably poor quality and seems to end after a brief and abrupt cut.

‘Now that we’ve seen the full scope of [Michael] Cohen and Lanny Davis’ deception, we don’t trust anything,’ Giuliani said, referring to Cohen’s lawyer.

Cohen is under a federal investigation probing allegations of bank fraud, wire fraud and violations of campaign finance law, and prosecutors are said to have seized many covert recordings in an April raid on his Manhattan office and hotel room.

However, Giluliani said that the tape released on Wednesday is the only one that involves a substantive conversation with Trump.

The others involve conversations with third parties regarding payments connected to claims from McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels that they had prior sexual affairs with Trump.

Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal is seen with Trump over a decade ago

Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal is seen with Trump over a decade ago

Cohen formed a shell company in September 2016 in order to pay the National Enquirer for the rights to McDougal’s story, after the tabloid paid the Playmate $150,000 for exclusive rights to the tale.

However, Trump and Cohen never ended up making the payment, when fears proved unfounded that Trump ally David Pecker, CEO of the Enquirer’s parent company, would be stepping down.

The most controversial part of the brief recording released on Wednesday was Trump’s mention of ‘cash’ when Cohen raised the subject of ‘financing’.

Giuliani has said that cash merely refers to a one-time payment as opposed to ongoing ‘financing’ over time. In the event, no payment was made.

Cohen’s legal team did not respond to Fox’s inquiries about the tape-tampering allegations on Saturday night.

Earlier in the week, Cohen’s attorney Davis tweeted: ‘Just as Richard Nixon learned, tapes don’t lie!’ 



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