Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani pulled out all the stops during his hour-long interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity Wednesday night, calling Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe a “garbage investigation” that was “tainted” and fired FBI director James Comey a “disgraceful liar.” He also divulged for the first time that President Trump reimbursed his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment Cohen made to the adult-film actress “Stormy Daniels” before the 2016 U.S. election. “It’s going to turn out to be perfectly legal,” he assured Hannity.
Guiliani recently joined the president’s legal team along with another heavy hitter, the well-regarded defense counsel Emmet Flood.
“America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani is a longtime friend of the “Bombastic Billionaire” — and Wednesday night it showed.
“Here’s what it’s all about — it’s real simple,” he said, referring to the Mueller investigation. “Are they objective?” Giuliani told Hannity that from what he can gather, Mueller’s team has already decided that “Comey’s telling the truth and not the president.”
He argued that Trump was well within his rights to fire the FBI director after he refused in interview after interview to let the American people know that the president wasn’t under investigation. Giuliani said people shouldn’t blame Trump for feeling that he is being mistreated in the Mueller probe.
“This is an outrageous miscarriage of justice,” the former mayor said.
He argued that if the special counsel investigation is not objective, it is “completely tainted” and they shouldn’t have the power to subpoena.
“You have an investigation in which Mueller is selected the day after he’s turned down for FBI director — by Rosenstein — who was there when Mueller was turned down. There are thousands of people that could have been selected for that job.” He pointed out that Mueller is also James Comey’s friend, and that Comey seems to be “their core of their investigation.”
“He’s telling the truth, the president isn’t. I know James Comey. I know the president. Sorry, Jim — you’re a liar. A disgraceful liar. Every FBI agent in America has his head down because of you.”
Giuliani said Trump is the best president in his memory — even better than his hero Ronald Reagan.
“I’ve told the president,’you’re going to get the Nobel Peace Prize’ and my proudest moment is — when you tell them to shove it,” he said.
He told Hannity that the odds right now are that Trump will not sit down with the special counsel for an interview but he has “an open mind about Bob (Mueller).”
“I don’t about Comey. I’ve closed my mind about Comey,” Giuliani added. “I have the indignity of … having hired him for his first big job and I’m embarrassed that I hired him.”
Giuliani said that Trump’s negotiations with the Koreas are “much more significant than this totally garbage investigation.”
“He is going to negotiate, I believe, a non-nuclear situation on the Korean Peninsula!” Giuliani exclaimed. “And you’re going to interfere with that?!”
“The crimes now have all been committed by the government and their agents,” Giuliani continued.
He told Hannity that any interview with the special counsel would not be allowed to go beyond two to three hours. “I’m not going to have my client — my president — my friend … be treated worse than Bill Clinton, who definitely was a liar under oath. He’s being treated much worse than Hillary Clinton, who had no right to any of that stuff,” Giuliani argued. “So I’m not going to let him be treated worse than Hillary Clinton.”
Giuliani called the whole Russia investigation “fake news.”
“Mueller owes us a report saying the Russia collusion means nothing — it didn’t happen. That means the whole investigation was totally unnecessary,” he argued. “None of it is relevant. Meanwhile the man is trying to deal with North Korea. Come on!” he exclaimed. “And they want me to go to him and say, ‘let’s take two weeks off to get you ready for a deposition that never should take place in the first place’?”
Hannity asked the former prosecutor what he thought about the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
“I’m sorry, Hillary — I know you’re very disappointed you didn’t win. But you’re a criminal. Equal justice with me — you should go to jail.”
He added that “no honest, reasonable prosecutor wouldn’t indict her.”
Hannity pointed out that Comey yesterday said that “Hillary deeply respects the rule of law.”
“Wow,” Giuliani sighed. “This is a very perverted man.”
He agreed with Hannity that there is a “two-tier justice system,” which he said benefited Bill and Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.
Giuliani said that he was afraid not just for our president but for our country because Democrats are going to continue to target Republicans in witch hunts, prompting Hannity to cite a new report alleging that Mueller was going to target Ivanka Trump next.
Giuliani shook his head in horror.
“Hope is one of the nicest human beings you’re ever going to meet,” Giuliani lamented. “What they did to her is absolutely outrageous!”
In a show of chivalry, he added, “Ivanka Trump?! I think I would get on my charger and go right into their offices with a lance if they go after Ivanka,” Giuliani said. He told Hannity that if Mueller’s team goes after Ivanka, the whole country will turn on them. “They’re going after his daughter?” he exclaimed.
Giuliani pointed out that Comey and fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe have contradicted each other in interviews.
“One of them has to be lying,” he said. “I actually think Comey’s lying. I think Comey’s a bigger liar than McCabe.” The former mayor argued that McCabe is only a “situational liar” and Comey is a “much bigger liar.”
Giuliani said his “biggest regret” was not taking the job of attorney general when Trump offered it to him, arguing that it was a mistake to appoint Rosenstein as deputy attorney general. Both Hannity and Giuliani said Rosenstein should have recused himself from the Russia probe, since he was a witness to critical information.
“This is a Justice Department completely unhinged and out of control,” Giuliani said. “I breaks my heart, Sean. I devoted most of my life to the Justice Department.” He added that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein could redeem themselves by ordering the investigation over.
“There’s been more government misconduct in this case than there has been conduct!” he exclaimed.
He added that the mandate of Russia collusion has now moved on to paying Stormy Daniels $130,000, which he said “is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. That money was not campaign money. Sorry — I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation.” Giuliani explained that the money was “funneled through a law firm” and Trump repaid it.
Hannity was surprised: “There’s no campaign finance –?”
“ZERO,” Giuliani insisted. He said other members of the campaign were nervous about the payout but he wasn’t because $130 grand is nothing to a guy like Trump, and that even didn’t know what the money was being used for.
He went on to call the raid on Michael Cohen “an outrageous violation of attorney-client privilege” and said it would be the only reason Trump’s legal team would not cooperate with the special counsel any further.
Weighing in on the possibility that the Trump team committed campaign finance violations, Giuliani said, “Just trust me. They’re going to come up with no violations there. The payments [to Stormy Daniels] are perfectly legal. All documented,” he said.
Giuliani agreed with Hannity that the Russia probe has been a witch hunt from the start. “In falling all over themselves to investigate him, they have committed numerous violations,” he said, including lies deceptions, and “outrageous search warrants.”
“What they did to Manifort, I used to do to the mafia,” Giuliani said. He told Hannity that the 2018 midterms will be a referendum on impeachment and posited that the American people would not be amenable to that — or to having Nancy Pelosi running the House of Representatives again.
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