Fox News’ Shepard Smith labeled comments made by President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani a “straw man argument,” hours after Giuliani said collusion is not a crime on Monday morning.
“Giuliani is essentially making a straw man argument and it is deceptive,” Smith said on “Shepard Smith Reporting” on Monday. “While the U.S. criminal code does not criminalize colluding, per se, it is a crime to conspire with a foreign adversary to influence or undermine our election or any other government action.
“Special counsel prosecutors have gotten indictments against more than 20 Russians, three Russian companies, and several former Trump campaign members, including guilty pleas from a foreign policy adviser and a national security adviser,” Smith added. “Both of those pled guilty. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty. He’s set to go on trial tomorrow.”
The comments come after Giuliani reiterated that Trump did not collude with Russia during the 2016 election, but then added that collusion isn’t a crime.
“Colluding about Russians, I’m not sure that’s even a crime,” Giuliani told CNN’s “New Day.” “The hacking is the crime. The president didn’t hack. He didn’t pay them for hacking.”
Giuliani made similar comments in another interview.
“I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime,” Giuliani said on “Fox and Friends” Monday. “Collusion is not a crime.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin. Trump has repeatedly condemned the investigation and called it a “witch hunt.”
