Rudy Giuliani: 'I Never Said There Was No Collusion' With Trump Campaign
Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that President Donald Trump didn't collude with the Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign, but never denied the campaign colluded with the Russian government.
In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Giuliani said he can't speak for anyone who worked for the campaign, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
"I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or people in the campaign," Giuliani said on Cuomo Prime Time. "I said the President of the United States. There is not a single bit of evidence the President of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspiring with the Russians to hack the DNC."
The president and his closest allies have maintained they never had collusion between the campaign and the Russian government.
A CNN report says an insider close to the Trump campaign admits that Manafort tried swapping polling data to Ukrainian associates tied together with Russian intelligence officials. Giuliani told Cuomo that his client, Trump, only learned of such accusations through the news, and that the president never shared polling data.
"Donald Trump wasn't giving polling data to anyone," Giuliani said. "He did not know about it until it was revealed a few weeks ago in an article."
The president has repeatedly denied any link between his campaign and the Russian government—at least 13 times through tweets.
"Democrats can't find a Smocking [sic] Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey's testimony. No Smocking [sic] Gun...No Collusion.' @FoxNews. That's because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution," Trump tweeted on December 13.
The president has often said the Democrats are on a "witch hunt" in efforts to find any evidence of corruption, including the court case against former attorney Michael Cohen and his payment of hush money to two women in 2016 for alleged extramarital affairs with the future president.
"Which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama's - but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer's liability if he made a mistake, not me)," Trump said. "Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!"
