New York University law professor Melissa Murray blasted Rudy Giuliani for his latest dubious defense of President Donald Trump and the evidence pointing to Trump's role in a concentrated effort to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.
Watch the interview here.
In an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News on Sunday, Giuliani tried to minimize the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal - which amounted to campaign finance violations - as crimes that are not really crimes.
“Did the president know about the hush money payments or not?” asked Wallace.
“Whether it happened or didn’t happen, it’s not illegal," replied Giuliani.
Murray eviscerated Giuliani's paltry excuse.
“Is that really the issue?” Murray asked. “I mean, we have a representative of the president of the United States basically admitting to paying women money to not disclose the fact that they have been in some kind of untoward [relationship] with the president."
Murray, a former federal prosecutor, continued:
“And his response and his defense is that if it had been more money, it would have been more serious. We are living in strange times. I mean, we are in a death spiral of stupid. This is insanity."
Murray also ripped apart Giuliani's claim that "collusion" is not a specific crime, meaning Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the matter is illegitimate.
“Giuliani is correct that collusion [with Russia] is not a federal crime writ large,” Murray said. “But all of the activities that go into collusion — misleading statements, collaborating with a foreign government, directing payments from a foreign government to a campaign — all of those things are federal crimes and the conspiracy to engage with others to do this is also a crime."
It has become abundantly clear to many people that Giuliani has totally lost it.
Giuliani insisted to Wallace that Trump will not, under any circumstances, sit down for an interview with Mueller. "Over my dead body" would that happen, Giuliani said.
Twitter had a field day.
Giuliani also tried to pin all the blame on Michael Cohen, Trump's prison-bound former lawyer and fixer.
“Question: Did Mr. Trump direct Michael Cohen to pay these two women off or not?” Wallace asked Giuliani. “Let’s get to the simple question of whether the president directed Cohen to make these payments or not."
Giuliani skirted a direct answer.
“Wow, that is some lawyer. He was the lawyer in that situation,” Giuliani sneered.
“Well, does the president tell the truth or not?" Wallace pressed.
“The president is telling the truth, yes,” Giuliani said before deflecting once again. “He did something I’ve never heard a lawyer do—taped his own client. The man is a complete pathological liar.”
