Rudy Giuliani backtracked Thursday after claiming the night before that he “never said there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
“I represent only President Trump not the Trump campaign. There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape, or form,” Giuliani, Trump’s lead personal lawyer, said in a statement. “Likewise, I have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign.”
“The only knowledge I have in this regard is the collusion of the Clinton campaign with Russia which has so far been ignored,” Giuliani said.
On Wednesday, Giuliani appeared on CNN and was asked about how the defense team for Trump’s former 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort admitted in a recent court filing that Manafort disclosed polling data prior to the election with a Russian-Ukrainian political consultant for Russian intelligence.
“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign. I have no idea, I have not. I said the president of the United States,” Giuliani said. “There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin. He indicted the Russian-Ukranian political consultant Konstantin Kilimnik in June on charges of obstruction of justice and tampering with a witness on behalf of Manafort.
Meanwhile, Vanity Fair reported Wednesday that Giuliani is predicting Mueller’s final report on the Russia investigation will be “horrific” for Trump. He also reportedly “hates” working as an attorney for Trump.
Giuliani did not return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on that report.
