Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani implied to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Sunday that President Donald Trump pressured former FBI Director James Comey to “give the man a break” and drop the investigation into ex-White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.
According to a Monday CNN report, Giuliani said that it was Comey’s own fault if he took that as a serious order.
“[Comey] could have taken it that way, but by that time he had been fired,” Giuliani said. “He said a lot of other things, some of which has turned out to be untrue. The reality is, as a prosecutor, I was told that many times, ‘can you give the man a break,’ either by his lawyers, by his relatives, by his friends. You take that into consideration. But you know that doesn’t determine not going forward with it.”
During his congressional testimony last year, Comey told senators that Trump told him he hoped Comey would “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Trump has denied this.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI officials about his interactions with the Russian ambassador and is working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
