Washington:
said he has “never said there was no collusion” between Russia and members of Trump’s 2016 White House campaign.
Giuliani’s comments directly contradicted the position of his client, who has repeatedly insisted there was no collusion during his successful White House run. Giuliani himself had previously called the idea of Russian collusion “total fake news.”
“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,” Giuliani said Wednesday night on CNN.
The comment reflected a stark turnabout from longstanding denials by the White House and Trump advisers of improper collusion.
In November 2016, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”
Giuliani said that even if some on the campaign did something wrong, the President was not part of any collusion.
In a statement Thursday aimed at clarifying the comments, Giuliani said, “I represent only President Trump not the Trump campaign. There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form.”
‘Rigged polls at Trump’s direction’
Washington: Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Thursday said he paid a firm to manipulate online polling data “at the direction of and for the sole benefit of” Trump.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had paid the data firm RedFinch Solutions to manipulate two public opinion polls in favor of Trump before the 2016 presidential campaign.
Cohen was sentenced last month to three years in prison for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to women to help Trump’s campaign and for lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia. Cohen has said Trump had directed him to commit the campaign-finance violations, which Trump has denied.