Giuliani says Cohen's tapes prove Mueller's 'investigation is going nowhere'

The secret recordings of President Trump made by his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, prove Special Counsel Robert Mueller's "investigation is going nowhere," Trump's current personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, argued Sunday.

"Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong; he didn't commit a crime of any kind," Giuliani said on an early morning radio appearance on New York's AM 970. "This is exactly what the president has always said it is. Whether he meant it or not, this is turning out to be a witch hunt."

In a recording obtained by CNN, Trump and Cohen are heard in September 2016 discussing buying the rights to a former Playboy model's story of the affair she claims to have had with the president years prior. Cohen is under investigation for possible campaign finance violations for allegedly paying to keep the allegations quiet. At issue is whether Trump knew of the payment in advance. The recording audio is not entirely clear, but Trump at one point says to Cohen, "Pay with cash."

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On ABC News Saturday, Giuliani accused Cohen of violating attorney-client privilege and indicated he has ended the Trump-Cohen joint defense agreement. "The president was very disappointed in Michael Cohen, as he's tweeted, particularly because he was a friend, but also because he was a lawyer and acting as a lawyer during that conversation," Giuliani said.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.