Rudy Giuliani on collusion accusations: "Somebody made this up"
Rudy Giuliani, one of President Trump's personal lawyers, is accusing the president's political opponents of fabricating allegations against Mr. Trump of collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
"So someone made this up. Now we're talking about really serious crimes," Giuliani told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett. "Now we're talking about doing great damage to the republic, not just to the president," Giuliani said about the allegations, which prompted a nearly two-year probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"I don't know if I'd call it treason, but it's pretty darn close," Giuliani continued, although he added that legally, making up stories about the president is not treason.
Giuliani and Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow are appearing on this week's episode of "The Takeout" podcast, which will air in full on Friday.
Giuliani and Sekulow discussed the letter by Attorney General William Barr to Congress, which summarized Mueller's findings. Barr wrote that the special counsel "did not establish" collusion. The special counsel did not determine whether Mr. Trump committed obstruction of justice, deferring the question to Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who concluded that the "evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."
Giuliani said that seeing the letter from Barr -- which they happened to receive from Garrett on Sunday -- was a "sigh of relief," but that he was initially concerned about a statement made by the special counsel on obstruction of justice. The report "does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," Barr quotes Mueller as writing.
The minute I saw that, I said, 'What the hell are they putting that in there for?'" Giuliani said. However, he said that he relaxed upon reading the rest of the letter, when Barr noted that he and Rosenstein determined there was insufficient evidence to establish Mr. Trump had obstructed justice.
"When you read the whole letter, absolutely no obstruction," Giuliani said. "Basically, you can say, this is the best you're gonna get. It's 100 percent."
Earlier, however, Giuliani blasted Mueller's failure to reach a determination himself on whether the president had committed obstruction in an interview on Fox News Tuesday night, calling it "totally inappropriate and totally unethical" and "pathetic."
Giuliani told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" that Mueller's findings, as they relate to the charge of obstruction, were "weak," and he slammed the special counsel for not "making up his mind."