Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for US President Trump, speaks during campaign event at the beginning of August. Photo / AP
Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for US President Trump, speaks during campaign event at the beginning of August. Photo / AP
Rudy Giuliani, US President Donald Trump's lead attorney in the ongoing Russia probe, said yesterday that he will not allow special counsel Robert Mueller III to rush Trump into an interview because investigators could try to catch the president in a lie based on their version of the facts.
"I am not going to be rushed into having him testify so that he gets trapped into perjury," Giuliani said on NBC News's Meet the Press.
Giuliani's exchange with host Chuck Todd produced an odd back-and-forth on the meaning of truth in the context of the Russia investigation.
WATCH: Rudy Giuliani tells Chuck that he doesn’t want President Trump to be caught in a perjury trap by speaking with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. #MTP#IfItsSunday
"When you tell me that (Trump) should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, that's so silly - because it's somebody's version of the truth. Not the truth," Giuliani said.
Investigators "may have a different version of the truth than we do," he said.
The two sides have been negotiating the terms for a possible interview with Trump, with the president's legal team seeking to take certain topics, such as possible obstruction of justice, off the table. Giuliani recently told the Wall Street Journal that Trump would not sit for an interview after September 1 because it might interfere with the midterm elections in November.
US President Donald Trump arrives back at the White House after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Photo / AP
Yesterday, Giuliani said that while a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Trump campaign officials and Russians was "originally for the purpose of getting information" about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, it was not an attempt at collusion.
"It turned out to be a meeting about another subject, and it was not pursued at all," he said. "Of course, any meeting with regard to getting information on your opponent is something any candidate's staff would take. If someone said, I have information about your opponent, you would take that meeting."
Giuliani, speaking on Fox News, repeated his concern about investigators' potential approach to a Trump interview.
"We get very nervous that they're trying to trap him into perjury, which is not supposed to be what they're doing," he said on Sunday Morning Futures.
"Meanwhile, they're fumbling around with this collusion thing. It is a laugher. There was no collusion and no conspiracy with the Russians involving Donald Trump," he said.
