Guiliani walks back collusion remarks

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Thursday walked back comments from the night before in which he maintained that he had “never said there was no collusion” between Russia and members of Trump’s 2016 White House campaign.

Giuliani issued a statement aimed at clarifying a Wednesday night CNN interview that appeared to leave open the possibility of improper contacts during the campaign, in light of court filings in the past year that have detailed ties between Trump aides and Russia.

“I represent only the president, not the campaign,” he told The Associated Press in an interview.

“And I can only speak of what I know, and that is that I have no knowledge that anyone on the campaign illegally colluded with Russia. But I can only speak definitively about the president, as he is my client.”

In a separate statement Thursday, he said that “there was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form” and that he had “no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign.”

That was an apparent reversal from the television appearance in which he said, “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign.” He had previously denied any collusion.

It was not clear whether Giuliani in the television interview was reflecting a new position or talking point from the Trump legal team or was making a strategic attempt to get ahead of potentially damaging findings from special counsel Robert Mueller, who has been investigating potential coordination between Russia and the president’s campaign.

Charles Krupa / Associated Press Rudy Giuliani: “I represent only the president, not the campaign.”