An attorney on President Donald Trump’s outside legal team on Tuesday claimed there was no proof of collusion in the case against Trump’s former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who earlier in October pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
“There’s no crime of collusion,” Jay Sekulow said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
He said Papadopoulos’ attempts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian officials, as revealed in court documents unsealed on Monday, were unsuccessful.
“The end result is, the meeting doesn’t take place,” Sekulow said. “The meeting that was being proposed did not take place, and that’s clear in the government’s submission that they filed in the federal court.”
Sekulow said Trump “has not indicated” to him “or to anyone else” that Trump has “any intent on terminating Robert Mueller” as special counsel overseeing the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“You could only terminate a special counsel for cause and we just don’t see any basis for cause,” Sekulow said.
Sekulow on Monday said he was “not concerned” that Papadopoulos’ guilty plea could imply possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“I’m not concerned about this at all and no one else is either on my side of things,” he said.
Pres. Trump's lawyer to @GStephanopoulos on George Papadopoulos: "He lied to FBI agents which is clearly not condoned by the administration" pic.twitter.com/qOluNPPqtn
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 31, 2017