Giuliani: Mueller does not have a legitimate investigation
President Trump's attorney goes on 'Hannity' to discuss the special counsel's probe.
President Trump's legal team is becoming more and more convinced it should ignore questions by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News' "Hannity" on Monday night, saying it's "highly unlikely" the Trump team will meet again with prosecutors.
Giuliani's comments underscored the newly combative tenor of Trump's camp towards Mueller ahead of the trial of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, set to start Tuesday in a Virginia federal court.
"Given the revelations of the last three or four weeks, we've gone further away from the idea of answering any questions from them," Giuliani told Sean Hannity. "We don't think they have a legitimate investigation.”
Giuliani, who previously claimed Mueller's team may have been trying to "frame" Trump, also laughed off a New York Times report that prosecutors were looking at Trump's tweets to build an obstruction-of-justice case against the president.
"I believe we're coming towards the end," Giuliani said of the Mueller probe. "And now they're looking at his tweets. Obstruction of justice by tweet. I prosecuted obstruction of justice -- if they're going to do obstruction of justice by tweet, to impeach a president, God bless us."
Earlier this month, documents released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed that the FBI had relied on an unverified dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC in an application to surveil ex-Trump aide Carter Page before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.
In the FISA application and several renewal filings, the FBI also repeatedly assured the court that it believed a Yahoo! News article provided an independent basis for surveilling Page -- even though the article turned out to have used Steele as its only source.
The revelations led Trump to blast the Russia investigation as an "illegal scam" and "witch hunt" motivated by politics.
HOW DID YAHOO NEWS ARTICLE END UP BOLSTERING THE STEELE DOSSIER IN THE FISA COURT?
Giuliani said that if the Mueller team tried to force the issue by subpoenaing the president, it would be fighting a losing battle.
"Well, then there will be a constitutional fight," Giuliani said. "I think we'll win it. ... I have one of the best Supreme Court lawyers in the United States with me, Jay Sekulow."
Giuliani added that prosecutors could not show a "particularized need" to subpoena the president personally, which he maintained was required by the limited existing precedent on the topic.
Trump's lawyers reportedly had been interested in setting conditions for a Mueller interview – namely that they wanted him to produce evidence that Trump had committed a crime before they agreed for the president to be questioned.
Fox News learned earlier Monday that Trump and his legal team are unlikely to agree to an interview with Mueller.
"I’m 'no' on a sit-down until we get ironed down exactly what they want to do," Giuliani told Fox News' "Outnumbered" earlier Monday, when asked about the status of the interview request.
Giuliani said the president ultimately would decide what to do, but, "Right now, I’m telling him, 'no way.'"
In May, the New York Times posted a leaked list of questions the Mueller team had for Trump.
"He's so damn arrogant, he doesn't care about appearances."
Fox News later obtained the questions, which covered Trump's interactions with key figures including former FBI Director James Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
Asked why Mueller's probe is spearheaded by several registered Democrats, including numerous attorneys who have donated to Democrats, Giuliani gave the special counsel some slack --- but not much.
"I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt: He's so damn arrogant, he doesn't care about appearances," Giuliani said.
Mueller had removed a top investigator on the Russia probe, embattled FBI agent Peter Strzok, after his anti-Trump text messages came to light.
Fox News' John Roberts contributed to this report.
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