Between \u00ab\u00a0collusion isn’t a crime,\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0nobody can be sure of anything,\u00a0\u00bb and a reference to \u00ab\u00a0the Russia transaction,\u00a0\u00bb Giuliani isn’t doing his client any favors.<\/b>
\nIn early May, there was a fair amount of reporting that suggested Donald Trump was growing frustrated with Rudy Giuliani\u2019s antics. It was easy to understand why: as we discussed at the time, the former New York mayor, added to the president\u2019s legal team for reasons that still don\u2019t make any sense, has a habit of doing more harm than good.
Take this morning, for example.
In case this isn\u2019t obvious, there\u2019s an important difference between the president and his legal defense team saying, \u201cThere was no collusion,\u201d and \u201cCollusion isn\u2019t a crime.\u201d The former is a categorical denial of dubious legitimacy; the latter is a hedge that appears intended to address new evidence that may yet emerge.
What\u2019s more, as NBC News\u2019 report added, \u201cThere is no statute covering \u2018colluding\u2019 with a foreign power, but it is illegal to conspire to violate laws against not only hacking, but foreign participation in elections. In an indictment earlier this month, special counsel Robert Mueller accused 12 Russian intelligence officers of conspiracy to hack computers and to defraud the United States, alleging that people \u2018known and unknown to the grand jury\u2019 participated in that conspiracy.\u201d
Making matters worse, that\u2019s not all Giuliani said this morning.
He told CNN, for example, \u201cHacking is the crime. The president didn\u2019t hack. He didn\u2019t pay for the hacking.\u201d
Giuliani was pushing back against allegations that don\u2019t exist. No one has accused the president of launching his own cyber-attack or financing Russia\u2019s espionage operation.
The concern is that Trump\u2019s political operation may have cooperated with a foreign adversary during its attack on our political system \u2013 and that\u2019s the part Giuliani is trying to dismiss as unimportant.
The presidential attorney went on to say this morning that Trump \u201cdid not participate in any meeting about the Russia transaction,\u201d which is the sort of phrasing that raises eyebrows \u2013 because we\u2019ve been told there was no \u201ctransaction.\u201d
As for allegations that Trump was informed about the infamous Russia meeting in June 2016, when Giuliani was asked today how he can be sure the president didn\u2019t know about it, the lawyer replied that \u201cnobody can be sure of anything.\u201d
If the president was growing frustrated with Giuliani in May, how exactly does Trump feel about him now?<\/p>\n

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