President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed up his lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s claim that collusion isn’t illegal, stating flatly that it isn’t a crime after the former New York mayor raised what could be a new legal tack amid the swirling Russia probe.
‘Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!’ Trump Tweeted Tuesday morning, answering a question he declined to answer when reporters shouted it to him at events Monday that were open to the press.
In doing so, the president endorsed a theory that could allow his legal team to argue that even if his campaign did meet with Russians about dirt during in the campaign, or perhaps even coordinated about it in advance, they did nothing wrong, since there is no specific crime called ‘collusion’ with a foreign power in politics.
He made the claim on the day his former campaign chair Paul Manafort’s trial begins on alleged tax fraud and banking charges, after a long investigation into his connections to Russian oligarchs.
‘Collusion is not a crime,’ President Donald Trump said on Twitter Tuesday
Trump weighed in a day after Giuliani said colluding with Russia may not even be a crime – raising the possible legal defense even as he lowers the bar following a series of emphatic denials by Trump that there was collusion of any kind.
Former FBI Director James Comey has said collusion ‘is not actually a thing that exists under the federal laws of the United States.’ Comey, who was fired by Trump in an act being probed for possible obstruction of justice, argued an April CNN town hall the issue is whether Trump or his associates conspired with a foreign power to break the law.
Prosecutors could try to pursue other charges if they uncover what they consider criminal behavior in the Russia probe. At issue in the investigation or any charges would be whether Trump associates and Russians engaged in a conspiracy to violate U.S. elections laws, or made illegal uses of the wires to carry out any efforts.
President Trump endorsed a claim by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani about collusion
The former New York mayor, a former federal prosecutor, made the statement in an interview with CNN where he argued that the hacking itself constituted the criminal act – and said that Trump did not pay Russia for its election hacking.
‘Four months, they’re not going to be colluding about Russians – which I don’t even know if that’s a crime, colluding about Russians,’ Giuliani said.
‘You start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime. The hacking is the crime,’ he concluded. ‘Well the president didn’t hack. He didn’t pay them for hacking,’ Giuliani said.
Giuliana also tried to explain this comment in his FOX call-in on Monday, calling it a ‘very familiar lawyer’s argument.
‘So I said today that there was no collusion therefore – and that collusion also is no crime. I’ve been saying that from the very beginning,’ he said.
‘The hacking is the crime,’ said former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, saying he doesn’t know if collusion is a crime
‘It’s a very, very familiar lawyer’s argument that the alternative – my client didn’t do it and even if he did it, it’s not a crime. And I have said that over and over again – collusion is not a crime.’
‘The only crime there is hacking and it’s ridiculous to think that the president hacked. Now why do I say that? I say that to attack the legitimacy of the investigation,’ Giuliani said.
Giuliani, who was minimizing former campaign chair Paul Manafort’s role during four months as Trump campaign chair, then compared Trump’s presidential campaign, which is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller over Russia and its election hacking, to media outlets who might disseminate hacked information.
‘If you got the hacked information from the Russians here at CNN and you played it, would you be in jeopardy of going to jail? Of course not,’ Giuliani said.
The possible defense is a marked departure from what Trump and his advisors have maintained for months – that there was ‘no collusion’ with Russia during the 2016 elections.
A picture taken on November 8, 2016 shows Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya posing during an interview in Moscow. She met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June 2016
It follows reports last week that longtime lawyer Michael Cohen is prepared to cooperate with investigators and say that Trump knew in advance about an infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Donald Trump Jr. met with Russians after the promise of ‘dirt’ on rival Hillary Clinton.
The meeting was also attended by former campaign chair Paul Manafort, whose role Giuliani diminished Monday, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
When Trump delivered a statement to the press from the White House following his July 16 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his printout had hand-written notes in all caps that read: ”THERE WAS NO COLLUSION.’
When Trump delivered a statement to the press from the White House following his July 16 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his notes read ‘THERE WAS NO COLLUSION.’
Trump regularly repeats the denial on Twitter and in remarks.
Giuliani also attacked the manhood of special counsel Robert Mueller – hours after the president said Mueller had an ethical conflict because of their own ‘nasty’ relationship.
Giuliani took to the airwaves Monday to keep up the president’s attacks on Mueller, who is heading the Russia probe, and faulted him for failing to publicly buttress Trump’s position regarding a leaked recording of a tape between Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen discussing a payment involving a former Playboy playmate.
‘When you’re getting beaten up by all kinds of anonymous tweets coming from (Cohen lawyer) Lanny Davis and Cohen, and you put out something like that, you have every right to say you explain it, Mueller, stand up and be a man,’ Giuliani told CNN’s ‘New Day.’
Rudy Giuliani said special counsel Robert Mueller needs to ‘stand up and be a man,’ and faulted him for having a ‘conflict’ with Trump
Host Alisyn Camerota asked why it was up to Mueller to support the president’s tweet.
‘Because he has the conflict, not the president,’ said Giuliani.
Giuliani also taunted Mueller in an interview with Axios published Monday.
‘Why don’t you write a report and show us what you have, because they don’t have a goddamn thing,’ Giuliani said. ‘It’s like a guy playing poker. He’s bluffing and he’s only got a pair of twos,’ Giuliani added.
‘Enough is enough,’ Giuliani vented. But he claimed Trump still has a ‘soft spot’ for Michael Cohen, who Giuliani has been branding as a liar amid signals he may cooperate with Mueller.
Giuliani wouldn’t disclose the Mueller business dispute with Trump, but may have referenced a spat over golf fees
‘I can’t tell you,’ Giuliani said of what he said was a Mueller conflict
‘The president has always had a soft spot for Cohen. He almost still does. Even now with his betrayal by taping him he still is worried about him because he believes he’s only hurting himself,’ Giuliani said.
In the CNN interview, Giuliani referenced a conflict so severe that if it were him, ‘it’s one that would have kept me out of the investigation.’ But he wouldn’t divulge more. ‘I can’t tell you,’ he siad.
He appeared to be referencing a dispute over golf fees at Trump’s Virginia golf club that was reported in the New York Times.
‘Maybe it explains why he hired 13 Democrats,’ Giuliani said, referencing Trump’s repeated claim that Mueller stacked his team with ‘angry’ Democrats, although FBI regulations would have precluded the Republican Mueller from using party affiliation to select his team.
Trump claims Mueller has multiple conflicts of interest
Michael Cohen (above) secretly recorded Trump in a 2016 conversation about a payment to quash affair allegations. Giuliani says that’s the only Cohen tape with Trump’s voice
Trump is seen with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal over a decade ago. In the secret recording Trump and Cohen discussed a payment to quash her affair allegations
President Trump went after special counsel Robert Mueller’s credibility on Twitter on Sunday
Trump fumed about what he claimed were conflicts of interest on Twitter Sunday.
‘Is Robert Mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to President Trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty & contentious business relationship, I turned him down to head the FBI (one day before appointment as S.C.) & Comey is his close friend…’ Trump wrote in a three-tweet rant on the investigation on Sunday.
Trump, according to The Times, in the past complained to staff about what he called a conflict because the two men had a bad business deal over fees at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., which led to Mueller, who was FBI director at the time, to resign his membership there.
Trump also argued Mueller could not be impartial in the probe because he worked for a law firm that had represented Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Giuliani also said it ‘sounds suspicious’ that only one of 183 Cohen recordings obtained from FBI raids on his home and office has Trump on it.
‘We have 183 unique tape recordings. Only 1 with the president of the united States,’ Giuliani said. ‘Sounds suspicious, doesn’t it?’ he added.