Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday dismissed ongoing concerns about the fate of special counsel Robert Mueller and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying it’s unlikely President Trump will fire either of them in the near future despite his frustrations with the year-long Russia investigation.
“I don’t think he’s going to fire Mueller,” Giuliani, who joined Trump’s outside legal team earlier this month, told reporters at the White House.
His prediction came hours after Trump admitted in a series of tweets that he wished he had tapped someone other than Sessions to lead the Justice Department. Sessions’ recusal from the Russia probe last spring paved the way for the special counsel investigation.
“He’s not going to fire him before this is over,” Giuliani said of Sessions, who has yet to respond to Trump’s critical tweet.
Despite previously claiming Mueller told him he would wrap up his investigation by September, Giuliani appeared to encourage the special counsel on Wednesday to conclude his investigation well before the November midterms.
“If he doesn’t file a report by September 1 [or] mid-September, he’s clearly doing a Comey,” he said, referring to James Comey. The former FBI director criticism in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election for revealing that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was once again being investigated by the top law enforcement agency.
Both Democrats and Republicans have voiced concerns about the potential impact Mueller’s team could have on the upcoming midterms if he releases a report exonerating Trump or detailing his involvement in Russian election meddling just before November.
“I think the American public will be tired of it if this is not wound down in this calendar year,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told attendees of a conference in California on Wednesday.
