Giuliani: Trump's team 'close to determining' that president won't speak to Mueller

July 8, 2018July 8, 2018 Kevin

ABC News(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s personal attorney said Trump’s legal team is “close to determining” that the president will not agree to an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation.

Rudy Giuliani was responding to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, who asked in an interview on This Week Sunday, “Have you simply determined that the president is not going to sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller?”

“We have not,” Giuliani said. “We’re close to determining that.”

Giuliani told The New York Times on Friday — and confirmed to ABC News on Saturday — that the president will not agree to an interview with Mueller unless the special counsel’s investigation has “uncovered something” and reveals its basis for wanting to talk with Trump.

“We’ve been through everything on collusion and obstruction,” Giuliani said on This Week. We can’t find an incriminating ‘anything,’ and we need a basis for this investigation,” he said, adding that he views the investigation as biased from its inception.

In an apparent contrast with Giuliani’s remarks, Trump has repeatedly said he wants to do an interview with Mueller. Just in May, the president said that “nobody wants to speak more” to Mueller than him, adding, “I would love to speak because we’ve done nothing wrong.”

Giuliani reiterated the president’s expressed interest in talking to Mueller, telling Stephanopoulos, “He wants to testify.”

“Well, it’s hard to believe that anymore,” Stephanopoulos responded.

Giuliani replied, “Well, it is hard to believe given all the things that have been shown about how tainted this investigation is. This is the most corrupt investigation I have ever seen that the Justice Department is allowing to go forward.”