Giuliani advises no Mueller interview without informant info

He asks to see classified material presented to members of Congress

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s legal team would advise that he refuse to submit to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller unless the team can review classified information shared with select lawmakers about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia’s election meddling, Trump’s personal lawyer said

Sunday.

Rudy Giuliani said that should Mueller’s investigators seek a court order to compel the president to testify, Trump’s lawyers would fight such a subpoena all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.

“I think we win it,” Giuliani said. Giuliani downplayed the chances that Trump would fire Mueller, a Republican who once was FBI director and has served under GOP presidents. Asked if Trump would dismiss anyone if the investigation kept going, Giuliani told “Fox News Sunday” that firings would play “into the hands of playing the victim, Watergate.”

Giuliani’s public negotiation over terms of an interview focuses on the use of a government informant who approached members of Trump’s 2016 campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has made unproved claims of FBI misconduct and political bias and has denounced the informant, without evidence, as “a spy.”

The two meetings with select lawmakers, held last Thursday, were requested by Trump’s GOP allies in Congress and arranged by the White House. The president has tried to sow suspicions about the legitimacy of the FBI investigation, and he and his allies have focused on the use of the informant.

After the meetings, which included Justice Department, FBI officials, congressional leaders from both parties and Democratic and Republican leaders of the intelligence committees, Democrats said they saw no evidence to support Republican allegations that the FBI acted inappropriately.