Rudy Giuliani has successfully completed another bewildering interview.
The most interesting parts of his appearance on ABC’s This Week fall into two categories: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and, of course, Stormy Daniels.
On the first point, Giuliani told host George Stephanopoulos that President Donald Trump didn’t have to comply with a subpoena from Mueller. “He’s the president of the United States,” he said. He also said he wasn’t sure that Trump wouldn’t exercise his right to remain silent during questioning from Mueller—never mind that in the past Trump has basically said that only guilty people plead the Fifth.
The interview came on the heels of quite an interesting week for the former mayor of New York. After telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Trump had not violated campaign finance law because he had in fact reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels, he had to walk back the claim when legal experts said it probably did. Then, on Sunday, Giuliani tried to downplay the whole thing, attempting to make it seem like pocket change. He specifically called it “a nuisance payment.” He added, “People don’t go away for $130,000.”
He also didn’t rule out that Cohen had paid for the silence of other women on behalf of Trump.
It’s really worth watching the whole wild interview here:
Maybe Trump wasn’t happy with the interview. Afterwards, there were reports that Giuliani was with the president this morning on his golf course.
Trump at golf course in Virginia, per pool report. "A tipster informs pool Trump is with his new personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Pool sought confirmation nearly two hours ago from the White House, but has yet to receive it," per pool report.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 6, 2018
Uh oh.