President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani said Friday that the report released the day before by the Justice Department’s inspector general (IG) completely undercuts the justification for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“They should end it. I mean, the IG report basically tells you that both prongs of the Mueller investigation are either corrupt or answered,” Giuliani told “Fox & Friends.”
“This report is a complete and absolute explanation of why Comey had to be fired, so how could it be obstruction of justice?” Giuliani added, referring to former FBI Director James Comey, whom President Trump dismissed last May.
The White House cited multiple causes for Comey’s ouster at the time, including his handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State.
Trump told NBC News’s Lester Holt that the “made-up” scandal of Russia’s election interference contributed to Comey’s firing.
“And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,’” Trump said.
{mosads}Giulaini’s remarks come after Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz on Thursday released a report that criticized Comey’s conduct during the FBI’s investigation into Clinton.
The report said Comey strayed from FBI guidelines when he held a July 2016 press conference in which he criticized Clinton and announced the FBI would not bring charges against her for mishandling classified information.
Giuliani said the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling should shift to a probe of Comey and other FBI agents.
“So this thing has to change from an investigation of the Trump administration for collusion – which is a made up charge by Peter Strzok who said ‘I’m going to get Trump. I’m going to stop him. I’m going to get him out of the White House,’” Giuliani said, referring to an FBI special agent.
“It should become an investigation of Comey, those FBI agents, who should be fired today and imprisoned next week.”