Giuliani might delay a Trump interview

WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that the president’s decision on whether to sit for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller could be delayed until mid- to late July as his legal team assesses the impact of a new report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Giuliani said last week that he expected Trump and his attorneys to decide about a face-to-face interview by the end of this month. But in an interview Wednesday, Giuliani said the inspector general’s report about the FBI’s conduct during the 2016 Hillary Clinton email investigation has upended that plan as the president and his team discuss the fallout.

“I’m advising him to stay put, to hold our horses a little,” Giuliani told The Washington Post, about an hour after Giuliani said he spoke with Trump. “I doubt August, and I doubt too far into July. But I do think things have changed.”

“I’d like to get it done, our part over to them by July 4th,” he said of a formal response to Mueller, but he added that developments at the Justice Department could lead him to advise the president to keep holding off. Last week, Giuliani vowed to use the report to undermine the special counsel’s probe.

Still, Giuliani said Wednesday the Trump legal team continues to engage with Mueller’s team and will keep open the option of a sit-down interview. Giuliani said that if talks over an interview collapse in the coming weeks, he is unsure whether Mueller would issue a subpoena for the president to appear.