WASHINGTON �� Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he's leaning against making the president available for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
"Not after the way they've acted," Giuliani said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I came into this case with the desire to do that, and they just keep convincing me not to do it."
"Every lawyer in America thinks he'd be a fool to testify, Giuliani said, adding that Trump in the end might do that. But Giuliani repeated a call for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to shut down the special counsel investigation once and for all.
Giuliani spoke after days of a shifting narrative about the hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
He said the payment, made by Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen to the adult film actress in 2016 and later repaid by the president, didn't violate campaign finance law. Giuliani didn't rule out other, similar payments on behalf of Trump.
His comments came after he indicated on Fox Thursday that Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels to ensure that her alleged affair with Trump more than a decade ago didn't become public weeks before the election.
"Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton," Giuliani, a former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox on Thursday. "Cohen didn't even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job."
Giuliani clarified the comments in a statement Friday, after being chided that morning by Trump. The president, speaking to reporters, said Giuliani "just started a day ago," although the former New York mayor joined the legal team last month. "He is a great guy," Trump said of Giuliani. "He'll get his facts straight."
"I'm about halfway there" in getting up to speed on the facts, Giuliani said Sunday.
Friday's statement recast the hush money payment as one that didn't violate campaign finance laws, and Giuliani stayed on that theme over the weekend.
"If it is for a personal issue, it's not a campaign finance expense," he said on Fox. "Even if it was a campaign donation, the president reimbursed it."
Giuliani said on ABC that there is a "long-standing agreement that Michael Cohen takes care of situations like" the Stormy Daniels one "and gets paid for them sometimes."
Asked whether Cohen has made payments to other women on behalf of Trump, Giuliani said, "I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it were necessary, yes."
