Rudy Giuliani has hit back against claims from former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman that President Trump knew about the hacked Democratic emails obtained by WikiLeaks before they were released during the 2016 election campaign. Giuliani appeared late Tuesday on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time.”
“I know she’s lying.” Speaking with @ChrisCuomo, President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani says Omarosa Manigault Newman’s unproven allegation that then-candidate Trump knew about the DNC emails before WikiLeaks released them is wrong.”
https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1029537735223128064
The former New York mayor said he knows Omarosa is not telling the truth “because I was on the campaign more than she was. I was closer to them than she was,” he said, then added. “I was from about June to November, I was with him 24 hours a day.”
Giuliani is now Trump’s top lawyer for the Russia investigation, and appears regularly on television defending and explaining the president’s positions. Yesterday he said that Trump was “completely surprised” the first time WikiLeaks released a trove of hacked Democratic emails at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign, which is a contradiction of Omarosa’s statement.
“[Trump] asked me, ‘Do you think there will be more?’ ” Giuliani said. “I told him, ‘I have no idea, but I heard some reporter on CNN, Fox, I don’t know where, saying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has a practice of putting out the weakest ones first, that he builds it up, builds it up, builds it up.’ I said, ‘I think this guy may have more than that.’ “
Manigault Newman had asserted earlier in the day, speaking to Katy Tur on MSNBC, that the president knew about the hacked emails before they were released to the public, which implies that he was part of the hacking conspiracy along with Russian intelligence agents and WikiLeaks.
@KatyTurNBC: Did Donald Trump know about Clinton’s e-mails before they came out?
Omarosa: Absolutely.
Tur: He knew about them?
Omarosa: Absolutely.
Tur: He knew what was coming out before Wikileaks released them?
Omarosa: Yes.
.@KatyTurNBC: Did Donald Trump know about Clinton's e-mails before they came out?
Omarosa: Absolutely.
Tur: He knew about them?
Omarosa: Absolutely.
Tur: He knew what was coming out before Wikileaks released them?
Omarosa: Yes. pic.twitter.com/4JhyzJBGEC— David Mack (@davidmackau) August 14, 2018
Manigault Newman, who is on a book tour, did not offer any evidence to back up her statement to Tur that Trump “absolutely” knew about the emails before they were released by WikiLeaks. During the conversation on MSNBC she also asserted that members of the Trump campaign were told to discuss the hacked emails frequently during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Giuliani strongly disputed Omarosa’s claims and repeated to Cuomo that Manigault Newman was not close to Trump during the campaign the way he was.
“We were surprised every time [WikiLeaks] did a disclosure,” Giuliani claimed. “She was not as close to him as I was. If she’s saying this and if it’s not in the book, never said it before, I don’t know if she was interviewed by the special prosecutor or not.”
Manigault Newman confirmed Tuesday she has spoken with special counsel Robert Mueller. She also indicated she would be willing to share with him tapes of conversations she recorded during her time on the campaign and in the White House if Mueller’s team reached out again.
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