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Rudy Giuliani, the newest member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, has once again found himself in a sticky situation over comments made to the media about his boss.
On Saturday, Giuliani found himself backtracking comments he made to the Huffington Post late Friday, which implied that Trump tried to kill the planned tie-up between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc.
“He did drain the swamp ... The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted.”
But in a CNN interview on Saturday, Giuliani said Trump told him “directly he didn’t interfere.” The government sued last year to block that deal, but officials have said Trump had no involvement in the matter.
“The Justice Department denied the deal,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN Saturday morning, repeating the White House’s past position on the matter.
Guiliani‘s Friday night comments created somewhat of a furor as they implied that Trump indeed blocked AT&T’s bid for Time Warner Inc. . It comes amid a backlash over the disclosure of payments to Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, by AT&T to advise on that pending acquisition.
AT&T has said that its hiring of Cohen was a “big mistake,” but nothing illegal. However, it also announced the retirement of head lobbyist Bob Quinn, who oversaw the hiring of that lawyer. The reports of the involvement of AT&T, along with Swiss drugmaker Novartis Inc. with Cohen stemmed from financial information released in a report by a lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump on Friday tweeted that his administration’s antitrust division has never been in favor of the AT&T bid for Time Warner:
Why doesn’t the Fake News Media state that the Trump Administration’s Anti-Trust Division has been, and is, opposed to the AT&T purchase of Time Warner in a currently ongoing Trial. Such a disgrace in reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2018
As for Giuliani, his newest comments on sensitive subjects are the latest in a string of media appearances he has made since joining Trump’s legal team representing the president in the Russia investigation. Trump has reportedly been questioning whether the former New York mayor should not be stopped from further media appearances, and his aides are worried that he’s causing more legal and political trouble for the White House, according to sources cited by The Associated Press.
Giuliani created a stir earlier this month when he said the president was aware of the $130,000 payment to porn star Daniels from his attorney Cohen. Trump had denied knowledge of that payment, but in a tweetstorm following Giuliani’s comments, said reimbursement to his lawyer for paying pornographic-movie actress Stormy Daniels wasn’t related to his campaign, but rather part of a nondisclosure agreement.