Rudy rips ‘phony’ Comey
Sticks to W.H. script
An apologetic Rudy Giuliani obediently towed the Trump line Saturday night, mocking “that phony Jim Comey,” criticizing special prosecutor Robert Mueller for overreaching, repeating the president’s oft-tweeted insistence that “there was no Russian collusion” and explaining away any previous instances of sticking his foot in his mouth.
“I’m not an expert on the facts yet,” the ex-mayor — and President Trump legal team newbie — conceded to Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro.
“I’m getting there,” he said of reviewing “1.2 million documents” to get up to speed.
Giuliani has recently been criticized for speaking out of turn, including by Trump himself.
Among his potentially client-incriminating gaffes was a riff on the brink-of-election-day timing of Trump’s lawyer’s $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
“Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Giuliani had said Thursday on “Fox and Friends,” thereby linking the hush money, which was never disclosed in campaign-finance reports, directly to the campaign.
On Saturday night, Giu- liani kept to the Trump script, insisting the hush money had nothing to do with the campaign.
He also claimed Attorney General Jeff Sessions “should dismiss the [former Trump campaign chair Paul] Manafort indictment and this whole investigation.”
And rather than steering away from his recent comparison of the agents who raided Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s offices to Nazi “storm troopers,” he doubled down.
“Comey got really offended when I said “storm trooper tactics. I think the judge basically said that, maybe a little more eloquently,” he said of Judge T.S. Ellis, who Friday challenged the money-laundering case against Manafort as an overreach by the special prosecutor. “But after all, I’m a litigator in there fighting for my client and some of the people around him.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed Saturday that Cohen gained access to up to $774,000 in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, according to public records.
The money included $529,000 via a mortgage on a Trump Tower apartment, and a $245,000 credit line linked to his own Manhattan apartment, the Wall Street Journal reported.