Rudy Giuliani dismissed Omarosa Manigault Newman’s claims Tuesday that President Trump knew WikiLeaks was going to dump emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign ahead of their release, shrugging off concerns she may cause legal problems for the president with special counsel Robert Mueller.
“If it’s not in the book, I guarantee you she didn’t tell the special prosecutor that,” Giuliani said during an interview with CNN, about Manigault Newman’s allegations and previous interactions with Mueller.
“She was not as close to him as I was,” he continued, describing Manigault Newman and Trump’s relationship during the campaign. “If she’s saying this, if it’s not in the book, never said it before. I don’t know if she was interviewed by the special prosecutor or not, it would be interesting if she ever said it to him.”
[Also read: Omarosa short on details in interview about scathing Trump book]
Manigault Newman, a former star of “The Apprentice,” made the accusations Tuesday in an MSNBC appearance, but provided no evidence.
Giuliani has also not heard from Mueller in about a week regarding their prolonged negotiations to have Trump sit down for an interview with federal prosecutors assigned to the Russia investigation, he said.
“I think they’re waiting for the Manafort case,” Giuliani added, referring to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s ongoing bank and tax fraud trial in Virginia, which stems from Mueller’s Russia probe. “I think they feel if they win, they’re going to be empowered.”
“We’re trying to tell them, I don’t care what happens with Manafort,” he said. “The one thing that proves is you don’t know anything about us.”
