President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani was disappointed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s decision to again once explain that he would’ve exonerated Trump of obstruction if he were certain Trump hadn’t done it.
Giuliani called Mueller’s obstruction remarks during a press conference on Wednesday a “perversion” and a concerted effort between Mueller and the media to attack Trump.
“That’s the law. A sitting president can’t be charged. So then if that’s the case, then why did he offer all those opinions?” Giuliani said, calling into Fox News. “Why did he offer all those recommendations and suggestions? Why did he investigate? The reality is that he gave us his opinion on collusion and obstruction. His opinion is you can’t bring a case. Bob, that’s the end of it. That’s what a prosecutor does.
“You don’t prove negatives,” Giuliani continued. “It’s almost impossible to do that. What they’ve done here is a perversion, a combination of him and the media and I’m surprised with Bob. He is a better lawyer than that. I don’t know where this notion came that he has to exonerate.”
Giuliani calls Mueller remarks on obstruction a "perversion!" pic.twitter.com/wDE0zVayak
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 29, 2019
During his statement, Mueller said that if his office was confident that Trump hadn’t committed a crime, “we would have said so.”
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow reacted to Mueller’s remarks by instead opting to point out Attorney General William Barr’s characterization of the results of the probe: that there were “no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct.”
.@realDonaldTrump attorney Jay Sekulow releases a statement following Mueller's remarks, emphasizing AG Barr's conclusion that "the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct." pic.twitter.com/Y3yC88TNAQ
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) May 29, 2019