Rudy Giuliani has confirmed that he is preparing a counter-report questioning Robert Muller’s legitimacy to be published when the Russia probe wraps up.
The former New York mayor said the report has two halves – the first questioning the basis of the Mueller investigation, and the second responding to claims of collusion.
But legal experts questioned how Giuliani could respond to a report that he has not seen yet, while writing off his efforts as a PR exercise.
Giuliani, who leads Trump’s legal team, has previously hinted at the existence of a counter-report but has not gone into detail about its contents.
Rudy Giuliani has confirmed that he is writing a counter-report to be released around the time Robert Mueller publishes his investigation into Russian election meddling
Giuliani said his report will have two parts, the first questioning the legitimacy of Mueller’s probe, and the second refuting claims of Trump colluding with Russia
Speaking to The Daily Beast, he said the first half of the report has been completed and runs to around 58 pages. The second half is still being worked on.
A section could also be devoted to Michael Cohen and claims that he is able to implicate Trump in campaign finance violations.
Giuliani began writing the paper in July alongside two of Trump’s other lawyers, Jay Sekulow and Marty Raskin, and several assistants.
The original plan was to have the report ready for September 1, the date that Giuliani expected Mueller’s investigation to wrap up, but that deadline has been extended.
A source told The Beast that the counter-report will likely be ready to go within the next three weeks, to be deployed once Mueller publishes his own findings.
Giuliani added that sections of it could also be leaked if parts of Mueller’s report also started emerging in the press.
The report will not contain any substantial new information or interviews, Giuliani admitted, and instead will be a summarized version of reports available on Google.
Glenn Kirschner, a retired federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., dismissed the report as ‘PR nonsense’ aimed at ‘poisoning the well’ for Mueller.
‘I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that they will find no obstruction or collusion,’ Kirschner said.
Giuliani, who has spoke of the report before but has not discussed its contents, says Trump is aware of it and approves
Trump has repeatedly attacked Mueller’s investigation as a ‘rigged witch hunt’, and Giuliani’s report is expected to expand on many of his claims
Trump has for months denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia, which is what Mueller was originally assigned to investigate before the brief widened to including Russia interference in the election more generally.
The President often refers to the investigation as a ‘rigged witch hunt’ cooked up by Democrats angry that they lost the election.
Among evidence he often cites are FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who both spent time on Mueller’s team while exchanging messages about how much they hated Trump.
Trump has also taken issue with the use of a widely-disputed dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele which was used to obtain a warrant against Carter Page.
The dossier was paid for in part by Republicans looking to discredit Trump, and in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign.
So far Muller has issued indictments against four of Trump’s close associates, two other Americans, two dozen Russians and three Russian companies.
All of Trump’s associates, including Cohen, have pleaded guilty to the charges against them with the exception of Paul Manafort, who was found guilty of fraud.