Fasten your seat belts, things are about to get crazy after Rudy Giuliani drops 3 huge bombshells during an interview with ABC News Sunday morning.
Trump’s top personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has been conspicuously invisible lately; but all that changed on Sunday, when he appeared on ABC’s “This Week” for an in-depth interview with host George Stephanopoulos.
Earlier this year (May to be exact), Giuliani dropped four major bombs on Team Trump, telling Stephanopoulos that:
- Trump might invoke the Fifth Amendment if subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller;
- Nothwithstanding that fact, Trump might not bother complying with a Mueller subpoena;
- Giuliani expects Michael Cohen to cooperate with Mueller;
- Trump may have paid off other women in addition to Stormy Daniels.
This weekend, same program, same host, same high stakes in play – Giuliani managed to drop two more bombs on team Trump.
The Washington Post reported on the interview, noting that: “The steady erosion of President Trump’s various scandal-related denials continued apace this weekend, with the return of Rudolph W. Giuliani to again wage war on the Trump team’s rhetorical consistency.”
Trump’s Michael Flynn problem just got real, thanks to Giuliani
Continuing, The Washington Post reported that: “Giuliani appeared to confirm Trump had asked then-FBI Director James B. Comey to back off Michael Flynn — which Comey has alleged but Trump has denied in no uncertain terms.”
The pertinent part of that discussion occurred after Stephanopoulos asked about Comey’s possible appearance as a witness.
“Well Comey’s testimony is hardly worth anything,” Giuliani began, later adding that: “The reality is Comey, in some ways, ends up being a good witness for us.”
Stephanopoulos followed up, asking: “How is he a good witness for the president if — if he’s saying that the president was asking him — directing him, in his words, to let the Michael Flynn investigation go?”
That’s when Giuliani dropped his bomb admitting that Trump did, in fact, ask Comey “can you” take care of backing off the Flynn investigation.
“He didn’t direct him to do that. What he said to him was can you – can you,” Giuliani declared.
Stephanopoulos followed up, stating: “Comey says he took it as direction.”
Giuliani responded: “Well that’s OK. I mean, taking it that way — I mean by that time, he had been fired. And he said a lot of other things, some of which have turned out to be untrue. The reality is as a prosecutor, I was told that many times. Can you give the man a break, either by his lawyers, by his relatives, by friends. You take that into consideration but, you know, that doesn’t determine not going forward with it.”
This flies in the face of Trump’s prior claims, as Politico’s Josh Gerstein noted in a Twitter post.
“Giuliani just confirmed that Trump said to Comey about Flynn: ‘Can you give a man a break.’ Here’s what Trump told @peterbakernyt last May,” he tweeted along with a screenshot of that interview which read:
Q: Did you at any time urge former FBI Director James Comey in any way, shape or form to close or to back down the investigation into Michael Flynn? And also, as you look back —
TRUMP: No, no. Next question.
Giuliani just confirmed that Trump said to Comey about Flynn: "Can you give a man a break." Here's what Trump told @peterbakernyt last May: pic.twitter.com/PkGTxDRvtc
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 8, 2018
Giuliani contradicts the long-standing Stormy Daniels’ storyline
The Washington Post reported on this interesting tidbit as well:
Most notably, Giuliani again moved the goal posts on Trump’s previous Stormy Daniels-related assurances. While Trump’s team has assured us — repeatedly — Trump had no knowledge of Michael Cohen’s payment beforehand, Giuliani would only say that is the case “as far as I know.” He then added a curious justification for if Trump did know beforehand. “Even if he had, that would not necessarily be anything,” Giuliani said on ABC News. “That’s something you settle because you don’t want your family to be embarrassed.”
Giuliani says "as far as I know," Trump did not direct Michael Cohen in advance to pay Stormy Daniels: "Even if he had, that would not necessarily be anything…that's something you settle because you don't want your family to be embarrassed" https://t.co/ShvlwlfqOa #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/AWC5Nl7ZTR
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 8, 2018
Below is a transcript of that exchange:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But — but — but to be clear, the president did not direct Michael Cohen in advance to make those payments?
GIULIANI: As far as I know, that is right. And second, even if he had, that would not necessarily be anything. If the president directed him to settle the case, he would have done that a year before, a year after, didn’t matter that he was running for office. That’s something you settle because you don’t want your family to be embarrassed. And the amount of money involved, $140,000, would indicate it was a nuisance settlement as opposed to the millions of dollars that have been given away in cases like that in the past.
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