Rudy Giuliani denied saying that there was “no collusion” between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
“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, who is Trump’s lead personal lawyer, said during an interview Wednesday on CNN. “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.”
“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign… I have not. I said the President of the United States,” Pres. Trump’s attorney @RudyGiuliani tells @ChrisCuomo https://t.co/Jy0gttT6Ac pic.twitter.com/JGISmtgrdy
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) January 17, 2019
Giuliani’s comments came after he was asked about how the defense team for Paul Manafort, Trump’s former 2016 campaign chairman, acknowledged in a court filing this month that their client shared polling data before the election with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian political consultant to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik, who at one point worked for Manafort’s lobbying firm, was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller last June on charges of obstruction of justice and tampering with a witness on behalf of Manafort.
Vanity Fair also reported Wednesday that Giuliani “hates” being one of Trump’s external attorneys. The outlet additionally reported that the former New York mayor expected Mueller’s final report detailing his federal Russia investigation findings will be “horrific” for the president.
Giuliani told CNN that presidential candidates usually “don’t pay any attention” to their party’s platforms, which are revisited during conventions. Manafort held his post in the Trump campaign when the Republican Party’s official stance on protecting Ukraine in case of a Russian incursion was softened.
“Candidates don’t know a damned thing about the platform,” he said. “I have been with a lot of presidents and a lot of presidential campaigns. The platform, they pay no attention to. They care about their acceptance speech, that’s what they are spending their time on.”
