Giuliani defends taking Russia aid
Lawyer says ‘there’s nothing wrong with taking’ info
WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted Sunday the president’s 2016 campaign did nothing wrong by taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in the special counsel’s report.
Giuliani called the Trump campaign’s effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.
“There’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russians,” Giuliani said, referring to a June 2016TrumpTower meeting involvingTrump’s son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and formerTrump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in which they sought harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton from a lawyer linked to the Russian government.
Giuliani was rebutting Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who said in a statement Friday on Twitter he was sickened by the findings from Mueller’s 400-plus page report in the Russia investigation. Romney cited details on how the Trump campaign welcomed political dirt from Russia.
Giuliani said Romney should “stop the bull,” saying that accepting negative information about a political opponent is common. “I would have advised, just out of excess of caution, don’t do it,” he said. Nevertheless, “there’s no crime.”
His comments prompted a rebuke from House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s not ok to seek Russian help in your campaign,” Schiff said in a tweet. “It’s not ok to use materials they stole from your opponent, or tomake it part of your campaign strategy. Sadly, my GOP colleagues do think that’s ok. The American people know better.”
Giuliani was speaking three days after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
At a rally in July 2016, Trump expressed hope that Russia would find about 30,000 emails that Clinton had said she deleted because theywere of aperson-
al nature. After that, “Trump asked individuals affiliated with his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails,” Mueller’s team found.
Not ruling out impeachment, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who chairs the House committee that would hold impeachment hearings, said
he remained puzzled why Mueller did not bring charges of criminal conspiracy against those in the Trump Tower meeting.
“All you have to prove for conspiracy is that they entered into a meeting of the minds to do something wrong and had one overt act. They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting to get stolen material on Hillary. They went to the meeting. That’s conspiracy right there,” said Nadler, D-N.Y.
Nadler said it was now up to Congress to investigate after the special counsel said it did not establish enough evidence to bring charges of criminal conspiracy and detailed 10 allegations of Trump’s attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation that left open whether Trump broke the law.
Asked whether the offenses are impeachable, Nadler told NBC, “If proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes.” He said Democrats’ focus is to “go where the evidence leads us.”
Democratic leaders are under mounting pressure from the party’s rising stars and some presidential contenders to start impeachment proceedings. House Democrats will confer Monday on next steps.
In the report, Mueller said he considered bringing charges over the Trump Tower meeting but ultimately did not obtain admissible evidence that the campaign officials knew the actions were illegal.
Giuliani spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union,” “Fox News Sunday” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Nadler also was on NBC.