Rudy “The Mouth” — Donald “The Honcho” and
Michael “The Fixer”
Astonishing
news from Giuliani on January 20
edition of “Meet the Press.”
He was an early guest questioned by MTP Host, Chuck Todd.
Key Substance: Giuliani
said that plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow may have continued until at
least the 2016 presidential election — months later than previously
acknowledged.
Giuliani said that Trump recalls discussing the project with his former
lawyer Michael Cohen until late 2016. He said Trump doesn’t remember the exact
dates or sequence of these conversations but that they didn’t go anywhere.
The question of how long
negotiations regarding the proposed Trump Tower in Moscow went on has become
one of the central issues in the Russia investigation, because Cohen originally
told Congress he had stopped work on the project in January 2016, long before
the November presidential elections.
In May 2018, Yahoo News revealed that,
in fact, those negotiations had gone on months longer than that. Then in November, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about
how long he was involved in the proposed Moscow Tower project.
Now Giuliani is saying those talks lasted roughly
until Trump was elected president saying in part: “It’s our
understanding that they went on throughout 2016. There weren’t a lot of them,
but there were conversations. Can’t be sure of the exact dates, but the president
can remember having conversations with him about it.”
“Throughout 2016?” the show’s
host, Chuck Todd, asked.
Giuliani responded: “Yeah, probably could be up to
as far as October, November. Our answers cover until the election. So anytime
during that period, they could’ve talked about it. But the president’s
recollection of it is that the thing had petered out quite a bit.”
BuzzFeed News published a now
contentious story claiming that Trump ordered Cohen to lie about the
negotiations on January 17.
Then that next day, Mueller’s
office issued a rare public statement on Friday night disputing the
BuzzFeed News story from Peter Carr, a
spokesman for the special counsel’s office saying:
“BuzzFeed’s description of
specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of
documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s
congressional testimony are not accurate.”
Giuliani affirmed that he had
to answer questions about the Trump Tower negotiations in written form to
former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the head of the special counsel probe
into Russia’s propaganda campaign.
According to Giuliani, Trump remembers a few
conversations and the letter of intent for the real estate project that
he signed October 28, 2015 — but not much else adding: “They sent a
letter of intent in. They didn’t even know where to send it. They knew so
little about it. They finally got it straightened out, and then they abandoned
the project.”
Giuliani, who campaigned for Trump, said: “That’s about
as much as the president can remember because throughout 2015 and 2016, all of
his energy was directed toward his bid for the White House. And I know that. I
was with him for about five months. His concentration was 100 percent on
running for president.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) the top Democrat on the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, appeared on “Meet the Press” right after
Giuliani, said: “The revelation that conversations could have continued into November is
news to me.”
Warner concluded: “That is big news. Why, two years after the
fact, are we just learning this fact now when there’s been this much inquiry?”
My 2 cents: This story just keeps getting juicier by the day.
Thanks for stopping by.
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