WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump on Friday disputed comments repeatedly made this week by his new personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, suggesting the president is questioning some of Giuliani's detailed disclosures that Trump paid hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
"He started yesterday," Trump mistakenly said of Giuliani, who started two weeks ago. "He'll get his facts straight. He's a great guy."
Trump, speaking to reporters as he left for Dallas to speak to a National Rifle Association convention, said Giuliani agrees with him that the Justice Department's investigations of Trump and his associates are a "witch hunt."
Giuliani raised questions in the legal community this week for his comments in interviews with television and newspaper reporters that contradicted Trump's prior denial that he knew anything about his lawyer Michael Cohen's pre-election payments to Stormy Daniels to maintain her silence about an alleged affair.
Giuliani said Trump reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment to silence Daniels before the election, in a series of monthly $35,000 payments that also covered other, unspecified legal services. On Thursday morning, Trump had seemed to confirm Giuliani's account in several tweets.
Giuliani's comments, if true, opened both Trump and Cohen to possible legal liabilities, for violating federal laws on reporting campaign-related finances and, in Trump's case, personal finances, including outstanding obligations to Cohen.
Trump has been increasingly outspoken and angry about the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, possible Trump campaign complicity and Trump's subsequent attempts to obstruct the probe.
Trump said Friday that "would love to speak" with Mueller but cast doubt that he actually would, citing his lawyers' advice.
"I have to find out we're going to be treated fairly," he said. "Right now, it's a pure witch hunt."
Trump also announced progress on plans for his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying, "We now have a date and we have a location. We'll be announcing it soon."
