Former mayor of New York CityRudy Giuliani has not ruled out the possibility that Donald Trump may use his Fifth Amendment rights in the looming Robert Mueller Russia investigation. On ABC's This Week on Sunday, the U.S. attorney told anchor George Stephanopoulos, "How could I ever be confident of that?" He continued, "When I'm facing a situation with the President...in which every lawyer in America thinks he would be a fool to testify, I have a client who wants to testify."
Giuliani, a recent addition to Trump's legal team, said that the president does not have to comply with a subpoena from Mueller. The U.S. attorney said that while Trump has expressed interest in sitting down and speaking with special counsel Mueller, he would advise him not to. On Friday, Trump said he would "love to speak" with Mueller if he is "treated fairly." He told reporters, "Nobody wants to speak more than me."
"I’m going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart?" said Giuliani in reference to Stewart's 2004 conviction of four counts of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a stock sale.
During the interview, Giuliani was also asked of Trump's reimbursement of Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. He reiterated that this was from personal funds, not campaign contributions. Giuliani said, "Now this was for another purpose, to protect him, to protect his family. It may have involved the campaign, doesn't matter, and it would've been done under any other circumstances, if there was no campaign."
On Wednesday, Giuliani had revealed that Trump reimbursed Cohen the sum of money, but Trump told reporters in April he had no knowledge of the payment. Giuliani added, "I never thought $130,000 was a real payment. It's a nuisance payment."
