Rudy Giuliani claims Mueller's team told Trump's lawyers they can't indict the president

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last updated 17 May 2018

Rudy Giuliani said on CNN Wednesday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team told President Trump's lawyers they've determined they cannot indict a sitting president.

"All they get to do is write a report," said Giuliani, one of Trump's newest attorneys. "They can't indict. At least they acknowledged that to us after some battling, they acknowledged that to us." Speaking to The Washington Post, Giuliani said Mueller did not explicitly tell anyone he would not charge Trump, and when asked which member of Mueller's team passed along the message, Giuliani said he needed to check with another lawyer, Jay Sekulow.

Mueller, he told the Post, is "bound by Justice Department policy. Justice Department policy, if you look at the 1979 memo, says that you can't charge the president. Says you can't issue criminal process against him either. No president has ever been charged criminally. Presidents get impeached then charged criminally." Mueller could issue a report that makes a recommendation for the House, and they could then pursue articles of impeachment.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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