Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller is aiming to finish the probe into potential wrongdoing by President Donald Trump by September.
Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, confirmed to CNN that Mueller’s office shared its timeline with him about a month ago. The New York Times first reported on Mueller’s time frame.
The former New York mayor said, however, that Mueller gave him the information within the context of a discussion about whether Trump would do an interview with the special counsel. Giuliani said the impression he got was that Mueller was saying if the President did do an interview, then the investigation into Trump’s actions, including any potential obstruction of justice or possible collusion with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, could be wrapped up by that date.
Giuliani also said the date could be different now because his discussion with Mueller was a month ago.
A spokesman for the special counsel declined comment.
Giuliani warned in the Times’ report that a lengthy investigation could affect the midterm elections this fall.
“You don’t want another repeat of the 2016 election where you get contrary reports at the end and you don’t know how it affected the election,” Giuliani told the newspaper.
The Times reported that an end to one part of the investigation would not be an end to the special counsel’s full investigation, which includes examining alleged Russian influence in the 2016 election.
Giuliani told CNN on Friday that Mueller agreed to narrow the scope of a potential interview with Trump as the special counsel investigation continued to seek a sit-down with the President.
In the same CNN interview, Giuliani said a president can obstruct justice, a comment that broke with the assertion last year of Trump’s former attorney John Dowd that the President cannot obstruct justice.
