Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, and classified the investigations into the 2016 presidential campaign as “done” and said that the only things they have left to look into are petty crimes.
“I’m telling you, George, they’re going to go try to look for unpaid parking tickets and see if they can nail him for unpaid parking tickets,” he told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, referring to the investigation in the Southern District of New York.
“As you know, the Southern District said this is far more serious than an unpaid parking ticket,” Stephanopoulos pressed during the interview on “This Week” Sunday. “They said this strikes at the heart of our democratic system.”
Giuliani responded, “Oh – oh, right. A campaign finance violation? Give me a break.”
Stephanopoulos, therefore, asked Giuliani if special counsel Robert Mueller what “almost done” with his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether any Trump campaign members directly coordinated with the Russian government.
Giuliani said, “He is done. I don’t know what else — I told you. No, the only thing left are the parking tickets and jaywalking.”
ABC News has previously reported that investigations like Mueller’s can take years to completely finish. Mueller was appointed in May 2017.
Stephanopoulos went on to ask more specific questions about the investigations surrounding the president.
He asked Giuliani if Roger Stone, Trump’s former longtime political adviser, ever gave the president a heads up concerning Wikileaks is planning to release of information concerning former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democractic National Committee.
“No, he didn ’t. No,” Giuliani said.
But when Stephanopoulos asked again, Giuliani said, “I don’t believe so.”
“If Roger Stone gave anybody a heads up about the WikiLeaks leaks, that’s not a crime,” he added. “It would be like giving him a heads up that the [New York] Times is going to print something.”
In an exclusive interview on “This Week” earlier this month, Stephanopoulos asked Stone whether he had any contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Wikileaks, or if he ever had spoken to Trump about alleged contacts.
“You are saying you never spoke to Julian Assange, never contacted WikiLeaks, never spoke to any of that to President Trump?” Stephanopoulos said.
“That is absolutely correct,” Stone said on Dec. 2. “No, I had no contact with Assange.”
CQ-Roll Call/, file Roger Stone, advisor to President Trump, arrives in the Capitol to speak with the House Intelligence Committee on possible Russian interference in the 2016 election on Sept. 26, 2017.
ABC News has previously reported on emails that special counsel Robert Mueller seems to be zeroing in on between Stone and one of his associates, former InfoWars bureau chief Jerome Corsi. According to the emails, Stone directs are going to Corsi to contact Assange and Corsi appears to successfully do so, with emails from Corsi to Stone suggesting Corsi knew about planned releases from WikiLeaks of material meant to be damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. In his interview on “This Week,” Stone said those emails were being “mischaracterized.”
(MORE: e-mails about WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange is being ‘mischaracterized’: Roger Stone)
On “This Week” Sunday, Stephanopoulos, therefore, asked Giuliani about a June 2016 meeting with Russians at the Trump Tower. The Trump campaign attendees, which included the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, expected to get compromising information on Clinton from the Russians.
“Did the president know about Don Jr.’s Trump Tower meeting with the Russians at the time?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“No,” Giuliani said. “Definitely, he didn’t know about it.”
The president has also previously denied knowing about the meeting before it occurred.
(MORE: President denies knowing about Trump Tower meeting with Russians, despite Michael Cohen’s claim)
Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/TNS/Newscom, FILEIn this file photo, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani welcomes Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on stage during a campaign rally in Charlotte, N. C., Aug. 18, 2016.
Stephanopoulos asked if there was still the potential for the president to sit down with Mueller for an interview, in addition to the written answers he submitted to the special counsel.
In an interview on Fox Sunday, Giuliani called the special counsel a “joke” and said Trump would be interviewed by the special counsel “over [his] dead body.”
On “This Week,” he had a more measured response.
“The agreement we had [with the special counsel] did contemplate that there’d be a period of time after the questions that we would have a discussion about whether there should be any further questions,” Giuliani said. “So I’m not saying we are or we aren’t, but that’s in the agreement.”
