Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: 'Collusion is not a crime'

President Donald Trump's attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, asserted Monday that "collusion is not a crime," and declared that the president is "absolutely innocent."

"I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime," Giuliani said in an interview on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends." "Collusion is not a crime."

Trump has repeatedly denied there was collusion between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As recently as Sunday, the president took to Twitter to repeat the claim.

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Chomsky said:

Source: (CNBC) Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: 'Collusion is not a crime'

This morning (Monday 8/30), it seems Mr. Giuliani made the rounds of the talk shows, including Fox & CNN, proclaiming:

"Collusion is not a crime"

Is this a change of tactics? Did Giuliani go off message? Did he go rogue, even if inadvertant?

I personally believed Trump pushed the ambiguous "no collusion" mantra, because it is not a legal term. It would be easier to politically defend himself if Mueller finds criminal liability, because Mueller cannot file a charge of "collusion". There is no such charge. And Trump can then try to spin away from any possible charges, by hiding behind the facade of "no collusion was found".

But if Rudy's push this morning is a new tactic, we may have to wonder why? Especially in light of the stories concerning Micheal Cohen's possible testimony against the President.

I also must point-out though, that further down in the article it is reported that Giuliani later this morning also Tweeted the old mantra of "no collusion", as well.

I can't help but wonder if these guys run excuses and conspiracies "up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes", and when no one does, they back it off it and try something else the next day. But I did find it interesting that - this morning at least - they resorted to "collusion is not a crime". It strikes me as just one more back-peddle in addition to the earlier, that has occurred over the past 18 months.

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Chomsky said:

Source: (CNBC) Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: 'Collusion is not a crime'

This morning (Monday 8/30), it seems Mr. Giuliani made the rounds of the talk shows, including Fox & CNN, proclaiming:

"Collusion is not a crime"

Is this a change of tactics? Did Giuliani go off message? Did he go rogue, even if inadvertant?

I personally believed Trump pushed the ambiguous "no collusion" mantra, because it is not a legal term. It would be easier to politically defend himself if Mueller finds criminal liability, because Mueller cannot file a charge of "collusion". There is no such charge. And Trump can then try to spin away from any possible charges, by hiding behind the facade of "no collusion was found".

But if Rudy's push this morning is a new tactic, we may have to wonder why? Especially in light of the stories concerning Micheal Cohen's possible testimony against the President.

I also must point-out though, that further down in the article it is reported that Giuliani later this morning also Tweeted the old mantra of "no collusion", as well.

I can't help but wonder if these guys run excuses and conspiracies "up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes", and when no one does, they back it off it and try something else the next day. But I did find it interesting that - this morning at least - they resorted to "collusion is not a crime". It strikes me as just one more back-peddle in addition to the earlier, that has occurred over the past 18 months.

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Chomsky said:

Source: (CNBC) Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: 'Collusion is not a crime'

This morning (Monday 8/30), it seems Mr. Giuliani made the rounds of the talk shows, including Fox & CNN, proclaiming:

"Collusion is not a crime"

Is this a change of tactics? Did Giuliani go off message? Did he go rogue, even if inadvertant?

I personally believed Trump pushed the ambiguous "no collusion" mantra, because it is not a legal term. It would be easier to politically defend himself if Mueller finds criminal liability, because Mueller cannot file a charge of "collusion". There is no such charge. And Trump can then try to spin away from any possible charges, by hiding behind the facade of "no collusion was found".

But if Rudy's push this morning is a new tactic, we may have to wonder why? Especially in light of the stories concerning Micheal Cohen's possible testimony against the President.

I also must point-out though, that further down in the article it is reported that Giuliani later this morning also Tweeted the old mantra of "no collusion", as well.

I can't help but wonder if these guys run excuses and conspiracies "up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes", and when no one does, they back it off it and try something else the next day. But I did find it interesting that - this morning at least - they resorted to "collusion is not a crime". It strikes me as just one more back-peddle in addition to the earlier, that has occurred over the past 18 months.

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Chomsky said:

Source: (CNBC) Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: 'Collusion is not a crime'

This morning (Monday 8/30), it seems Mr. Giuliani made the rounds of the talk shows, including Fox & CNN, proclaiming:

"Collusion is not a crime"

Is this a change of tactics? Did Giuliani go off message? Did he go rogue, even if inadvertant?

I personally believed Trump pushed the ambiguous "no collusion" mantra, because it is not a legal term. It would be easier to politically defend himself if Mueller finds criminal liability, because Mueller cannot file a charge of "collusion". There is no such charge. And Trump can then try to spin away from any possible charges, by hiding behind the facade of "no collusion was found".

But if Rudy's push this morning is a new tactic, we may have to wonder why? Especially in light of the stories concerning Micheal Cohen's possible testimony against the President.

I also must point-out though, that further down in the article it is reported that Giuliani later this morning also Tweeted the old mantra of "no collusion", as well.

I can't help but wonder if these guys run excuses and conspiracies "up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes", and when no one does, they back it off it and try something else the next day. But I did find it interesting that - this morning at least - they resorted to "collusion is not a crime". It strikes me as just one more back-peddle in addition to the earlier, that has occurred over the past 18 months.

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American said:

Is it a crime?

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American said:

Is it a crime?

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American said:

Is it a crime?

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Lutherf said:

Only if you’re Trump. If you’re Clinton then it’s fine to engage, via proxy, the services of international firms and individuals to solicit “opposition research”. If you’re Trump and foreign nationals seek to engage you you are guilty of espionage even if you don’t accept the attempted engagement.

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Greenbeard said:

Given it seems that Team Trump had a prep meeting about their upcoming Russian rendezvous two days before the Collusion Meeting (the very day Trump publicly promised he would soon be sharing Clinton dirt), “no collusion!” might soon be untenable. So on to the next thing. “Collusion is fine!”

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Chomsky said:

Not to debate, but rather to bolster the knowledge base:
Do you have a cite for the bolded?

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Crosscheck said:

This current crew reminds us of the Nixon Watergate crew.

Then to top it off they bring in Rudy "9-11" Giuliani to further tangle up all the lies. Who thought bringing in "attention seeking Rudy" would help?

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Chomsky said:

Source: (CNBC) Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: 'Collusion is not a crime'

This morning (Monday 8/30), it seems Mr. Giuliani made the rounds of the talk shows, including Fox & CNN, proclaiming:

"Collusion is not a crime"

Is this a change of tactics? Did Giuliani go off message? Did he go rogue, even if inadvertant?

I personally believed Trump pushed the ambiguous "no collusion" mantra, because it is not a legal term. It would be easier to politically defend himself if Mueller finds criminal liability, because Mueller cannot file a charge of "collusion". There is no such charge. And Trump can then try to spin away from any possible charges, by hiding behind the facade of "no collusion was found".

But if Rudy's push this morning is a new tactic, we may have to wonder why? Especially in light of the stories concerning Micheal Cohen's possible testimony against the President.

I also must point-out though, that further down in the article it is reported that Giuliani later this morning also Tweeted the old mantra of "no collusion", as well.

I can't help but wonder if these guys run excuses and conspiracies "up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes", and when no one does, they back it off it and try something else the next day. But I did find it interesting that - this morning at least - they resorted to "collusion is not a crime". It strikes me as just one more back-peddle in addition to the earlier, that has occurred over the past 18 months.

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American said:

Is it a crime?

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Mach said:

Did team Trump have contacts with Russians? No. Later we find out yes.
Well, it was about adoptions. Later we find it was about dirt on hillary.
Did Trump know? No.
Cohen under possibly indictment says, "Yeah Trump knew".

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Mach said:

Giuliani: Collusion isn't a crime.
Looks like he's falling back for a reason.

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Rexedgar said:

They have been using the wrong ‘C’ word for some time now.

Collusion-out
Conspiracy-in

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Mach said:

He can respond for his own source, but for me it was this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...osts-on-trump-russia-collusion/?noredirect=on

Update: Giuliani appeared on Fox News later Monday to clarify. He said he was indeed talking about an allegation of a second, earlier meeting that hasn't been made public -- but which he heard about from talking to reporters. Asked why he was debunking an allegation that hadn't been made, Giuliani said he was merely getting ahead of the story.

Assuming Giuliani wouldn't "get out ahead" of a story that wasn't real and wasn't coming, of course.

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Giuliani also seemed to offer a very narrow denial of what happened with the Trump Tower meeting. While discussing Michael Cohen's allegation that Trump knew about the meeting, Giuliani focused his defense on arguing not necessarily that Trump didn't know about it — but that he wasn't physically at meetings at which information from Russians was discussed. And he did it on both shows.

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Chomsky said:

That's the point. It's not. Which is why I believe Trump pushes it.

The actual crime of this nature, if it arose, would be "conspiracy". That is, the conspiracy to commit crimes against the U.S. government, that may or may not have come to fruition.

For example:

The Trump Tower Russian meeting, where Don Jr. had an email promising "help from the Russian government", would seem to me to be a conspiracy to commit a criminal offense (election fraud), whether or not the conspired crime came to fruition (it may or may not have).

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WCH said:

Conspiracies aren't well look upon here.

But here ya go....Hillary is guilty of all of the above. yet....

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Rexedgar said:

What are you saying in your first point; and what does Hillary have to do with the topic here?

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