Report: Mueller Team ‘Amused’ by Rudy Giuliani’s Goal to End Russia Probe
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, file)
By Todd Beamon
NEWSMAX
Rudy Giuliani said he joined President Donald Trump’s personal legal team to bring an end to the Russia probe, but special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators are said to be “amused” by the former New York City mayor’s objective.
“If Rudy comes to Mueller trying to negotiate anything short of a presidential guilty plea, he will likely be met by deaf ears,” a lawyer following the case told Fox Business for a Friday report.
Mueller’s team has signaled that its investigation into possible meddling by Moscow in the 2016 election is “exploring new avenues presented by at least two cooperating witnesses” — according to the report — and Giuliani can do little to force the special counsel’s hand.
“Giuliani’s great, but I don’t think he’s going to move the dial one way or another,” Chris Swecker, a white-collar criminal attorney and FBI assistant director, told Fox Business.
“I know how Mueller operates.
“He’s not going to let anyone stampede him into it early or bring this case to an early conclusion,” Swecker told Fox’s Neil Cavuto.
However, Swecker said he believed the Russia probe was winding down.
“I do think something’s going to happen in the next month or two,” he said.
Mueller has put off the sentencing until later this month of two former Trump aides charged in the Mueller probe: Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign aide George Papadopoulos.
“This leads me to believe he is keeping his witnesses on ice until the next indictment,” Swecker told Cavuto. “Working your way up the food chain to the next level … related to Russia collusion.
“I don’t think the president is going to get brought into this, but I do think there is something else coming.”
Possible targets for criminal charges, according to Swecker: Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son who met with Russian operatives under the guise of obtaining negative information on Democrat Hillary Clinton, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law who is a top White House adviser, who also attended the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
Both Trump Jr. and Kushner have denied any wrongdoing — and President Trump has continuously slammed the Russia probe as a “witch hunt.”
A Giuliani spokeswoman did not return requests seeking comment, Fox Business reports. A Mueller representative declined to comment.
A former federal prosecutor who was dubbed “America’s Mayor” because of his leadership during the 9/11 attacks, Giuliani, 73, told The Washington Post Thursday that Mueller’s investigation needed to end “for the good of the country.”
“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” he said.
President Trump in a statement from one of his other personal attorneys, Jay Sekulow, said: “Rudy is great.
“He has been my friend for a long time and wants to get this matter quickly resolved for the good of the country.”
Giuliani, who worked with Mueller at the Justice Department in the 1980s, joins Trump’s legal team after lead attorney John Dowd quit amid difficulties in working with the president.
Dowd is the only lawyer on Trump’s team who has examined every document the White House surrendered to Mueller in the inquiry, a person familiar with the matter told Fox Business.
Giuliani is said to have a good relationship with Mueller from their Justice Department days.
Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reportedly told Trump that he was not a target of the Mueller probe — though some of the president’s advisers have cautioned that the legal troubles engulfing longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, could prove more perilous to him than the Moscow investigation.
FBI agents raided Cohen’s offices in Manhattan on April 9, armed with search warrants based in part on information obtained from Mueller’s investigators.
The raid was overseen by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the office Giuliani once headed.
While Rosenstein also assured Trump that he was not a target of the Cohen probe either, the president’s advisers cautioned that he could “flip” and turn against Trump if faced with criminal charges.
“I don’t see Michael as taking the pressure or a fall for somebody else,” longtime Trump attorney and adviser Jay Goldberg told CNN on Thursday.
Cohen has not been charged — and his attorney declined to comment to Fox Business.
President Trump on Saturday slammed The New York Times for reporting that he and his advisers were concerned that Cohen might turn against him.
Here are his Twitter posts:
The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.” They use….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
….non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
….it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018