In an interview aired Sunday, President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani accused Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team of intimidating and pressuring witnesses, the Hill reports. According to Giuliani, Mueller is pressuring two key witnesses in the probe, former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, and the president’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.
Notably, echoing Donald Trump, Giuliani trashed Mueller’s probe calling it a “witch hunt,” accusing Robert Mueller and his team of acting like God.
“This isn’t a search for the truth. It’s a witch hunt. This is what is wrong with these special prosecutors and independent counsels. They think they are God.”
As it has been widely reported, Trump repeatedly uses phrases like “witch hunt” to smear Mueller’s probe. In an August column, the Atlantic observed that this could have a psychological impact on Americans exposed to Trump’s tweets and public statements, since the president could be using the power of persuasion to create what is know as an “illusory truth.” Trump’s persuasion tactics may or may not be working, but Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference has only gained momentum. Robert Mueller and his team have cracked down on two of Donald Trump’s close confidants: Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, former Obama administration official Neal Katyal predicted that Michael Cohen’s guilty plea could spell the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, following news that Cohen pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress. Cohen’s decision to cooperate with Mueller, according to Katyal, could be a game-changer for Mueller’s probe. But according to Rudy Giuliani, Cohen was pressured and intimidated, which means that his testimony is not valid.
Rudy Giuliani accuses Mueller of unethical behavior in Cohen’s case https://t.co/nMBZHrIWXq pic.twitter.com/40dLESeCOv
— New York Post (@nypost) December 2, 2018
Mueller and team, Trump’s lawyer claims, “exerted a lot of pressure” on Cohen who “has a history of significant lies in the past.” Furthermore, Giuliani argued, Mueller is “intimidating” witnesses to say “what he believes [is] his version of the truth.”
“They seem to want to prosecute people at any cost, including the cost of ethical behavior and the rights of people,” Giuliani concluded, adding that the same is being done to Paul Manafort. According to President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, this pressure could result in witnesses like Manafort being forced to effectively commit perjury, tainting their testimonies.
The Hill notes that Paul Manafort is being accused of committing federal crimes by lying to Robert Mueller and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “on a wide variety of subject matters.” Mueller’s team has until December 7 to explain how exactly Manafort violated his plea agreement. Trump’s former campaign chairman is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2019.