Rudy Giuliani, one of President Donald Trump’s attorneys, told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” that he could not rule out that the president may take the 5th Amendment if he testifies in the Russia investigation.
“How could I be confident” that the president won’t take the 5th Amendment, Giuliani told Stephanopoulos. According to ABC News, Giuliani also added Trump does not have to comply with a special counsel subpoena.
When asked if he would recommend that Trump sit down for an interview with investigators, Giuliani said, “I have a client [Trump] who wants to testify ... So he may testify and we may actually work things out with Bob Mueller.” But overall, he would not recommend Trump sit down with investigators, CBS News reports.
“Not after the way they've acted. I came into this case with the desire to [have the president talk with Special Counsel Robert Mueller], and they just keep convincing me not to do that,” Giuliani said.
“They're trying to trap — you couldn't put a lawyer on the show who wants to keep his law license to tell you he should testify,” he added. “I wouldn't be an attorney if I did that, I'd live in some kind of unreal fantasy world that everyone tells the truth.”
According to ABC News, Giuliani suggested that someone from the special counsel’s team leaked the questions that Mueller wants to ask Trump to The New York Times.
Stephanopoulos stopped Giuliani, noting that the questions were written by a Trump attorney after meeting with Mueller and his team.
“It wasn’t something leaked by us, I know that,” Giuliani responded.
But Giuliani noted the possibility that someone who may have formerly been associated with Trump could have leaked the questions to The Times.
“Could it have been somebody formerly on our side? Could it have been somebody formerly on theirs? I don’t know,” Giuliani remarked.
When Giuliani was asked about whether he thought Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, would cooperate with special counsel, Giuliani said he expected Cohen would, and noted that he had no concerns about anything Cohen would say, CBS News reports.
“Michael Cohen doesn’t have any incriminating evidence on the president or himself,” Giuliani said. “He's an honest, honorable lawyer.”
Giuliani was also asked if Cohen had made any payments, like the one with Stormy Daniels, to any other women, CBS News reports.
“I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes,” Giuliani said. He added that Cohen “made payments for the president” and regularly “conducted business for the president.”
Giuliani has gotten off to a rocky start since joining Trump’s legal team about two weeks ago.
After Giuliani told Fox’s Sean Hannity during an interview on Wednesday that Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey because “Comey would not, among to other things, say that he wasn't a target of the investigation,” it created a bit of a wave.
On Friday, Trump pushed back on Giuliani’s statements, saying, “Rudy is great guy but he just started a day ago.”
“He’s working hard learning the subject matter...he’ll get his facts straight, he’s a great guy,” Trump added.
