Giuliani: Mueller interview off table until demand met
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that Trump will not agree to an interview with the special counsel until prosecutors allow the president’s legal team to review documents related to the FBI’s use of an informant to interact with members of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“We need all the docu- Rudy Giuliani says “we need” documents related to FBI use of an informant. ments before we can decide whether we are going to do an interview,” Giuliani said, using Trump’s term “spy- gate” to refer to the FBI actions, which former officials have said were well within bounds.
Giuliani’s latest demand further ratcheted up the pressure that Trump and his lawyers are trying to place on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team as his investigation into alleged coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia reaches a key juncture.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump lashed out at the “rigged Russia Witch Hunt” on Twitter, casting Mueller’s probe as partisan and saying it could amount to “MEDDLING” in this year’s midterm elections to the detriment of Republicans.
Giuliani had said that Trump has done nothing improper and is eager to talk to Mueller.
On Tuesday, though, he said, he doesn’t want to make a call on whether Trump will sit down for an interview “until they decide whether they are going to give us the documents or not.”
Under pressure from the White House and congressional Republicans, the Justice Department last week held an unusual pair of briefings for lawmakers on the FBI’s use of the informant, whom Trump has repeatedly cast as a “spy” implanted in his campaign.
There is no evidence to suggest that the source was inserted into the campaign, as the president has suggested, but he did seek out and meet several campaign advisers.
Asked why Trump has spent so much time attacking the Mueller probe, Giuliani said the tactic is working.
“As an effective politician, you’re not going to do something that you don’t think is working,” he said.
“Spygate — that’s the reason — he’s not just ratcheted it up for no reason,” Giuliani said. “He believes it is working, and he is genuinely upset about it.