Giuliani now claims: "I have never said that there was no collusion between the campaign" and Russia

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, stated in an interview with CNN on Wednesday night that he "n & # He had never said "that the Trump campaign was not conducted by Russia.

This comment runs counter to his previous remarks and those of Trump on the subject. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his campaign has not been equated with Russian officials. The question of whether the Trump campaign was tied with Russia is at the heart of the investigation of the special advocate Robert Mueller on the interference of Russia in the 2016 elections.

"I am Never said that there was no collusion between the two campaigns. "Giuliani told Chris Cuomo of CNN, who immediately reacted on this point.

"I did not do it," Giuliani said, doubling his first remark. "I said the President of the United States.There is not the slightest evidence that the President of the United States committed the only crime you could commit here, which conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC. "

When Cuomo pushed back On this line as well, Giuliani said that Trump "did not collaborate with Russia either!"

The president's attorney previously said that there was "no collusion", but that "collusion is not a crime". Giuliani also said that no one in "the higher echelons of the Trump campaign" was in collusion with Russia, adding in an interview to Fox News that he "had no reason to believe that someone else was doing it ".

Trump, who denied the existence of any complicity between his campaign and Russia.

"There was no one to collaborate with," Trump told a press conference with Vladimir Putin last summer. "There was no collusion with the campaign."

In a tweet last February, Trump said his campaign "did nothing wrong – no collusion!"

and before his former National Security Advisor At Michael Flynn's sentencing hearing last month, Trump tweeted that it would be "interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure exerted on him, on Russian collusion in our great and obviously very successful political campaign. "

" There is no had collusion! "he added.

Giuliani also insisted on new revelations regarding former Trump campaign president Paul Manafort, whose lawyers appeared to have accidentally revealed information about what was supposed to be. a redacted court statement showing that Manafort was sharing Trump's survey data with a Russian linked to the nation's intelligence services.

"This is not a collusion," Giuliani said. "Because survey data is communicated to everyone". [19659019] Counsel added that Manafort "should not have given it to them" and that it was "wrong to give it to them", however. But he also said that such internal survey data is "cooked" and "the most inaccurate".

Allan Smith

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.