Giuliani indicates Trump Tower Moscow discussions took place up until November 2016

Rudy Giuliani indicated Sunday that President Trump’s former longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, may have pursued discussions about a possible Trump Tower Moscow development up to November 2016.

“According to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to November of 2016,” Giuliani said on ABC’s “This Week,” apparently referring to President Trump’s written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller regarding the deal.

Cohen last month pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump property in Moscow, plans he initially said were scrapped in January 2016, but actually continued well into the presidential campaign according to his confession.

Giuliani has previously indicated that Trump’s account of the Moscow Trump Tower negotiations aligned with Cohen’s, but did not reveal specifics about timing.

“Until you actually sit down and answer the questions and you go back and you look at the papers … you’re not going to know what happened,” Giuliani said when pressed on ABC.

“That’s why lawyers prepare for those answers,” he added.

.@GStephanopoulos: “Did Donald Trump know that Michael Cohen was pursuing the Trump Tower in Moscow into the summer of 2016?”

Rudy Giuliani: “According to the answer that he gave, it would have covered all the way up to … November of 2016” https://t.co/GlcWTIu29g #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/JAVzAUygoN

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 16, 2018

{mosads}Cohen last week was sentenced to three years in prison stemming from federal charges of tax fraud and bank fraud, and campaign finance violations he said he committed at Trump’s direction when he directed payments to two women who alleged they had affairs with the president.

Trump has denied directing Cohen to break the law.

Giuliani, who is representing Trump in the Russia investigation, addressed other questions that have reportedly been of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. 

He said he does not believe Roger Stone gave Trump a heads-up during the 2016 campaign about hacked emails being released by WikiLeaks, but that even if he had it would not be a crime.

“I don’t believe so,” Giuliani said. “But again, If Roger Stone gave anybody a heads-up about WikiLeaks leaks, that’s not a crime. It would be like giving him a heads-up that the Times is going to print something.”

.@GStephanopoulos: “Did Roger Stone ever give the president a heads up on Wikileaks leaks?”

Rudy Giuliani: “No, he didn’t … I don’t believe so, but again, if Roger Stone gave anybody heads up about Wikileaks leaks, that’s not a crime” https://t.co/7XzYDoD43L #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/GKPN8nL4PY

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 16, 2018

Mueller has reportedly zeroed in on potential contacts between Stone, an ally of Trump’s, and WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. Stone has denied he knew of WikiLeaks’s planned leak of hacked materials ahead of time.

Giuliani additionally addressed whether the president was aware of a summer 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between members of his campaign and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. 

“That is definitely he didn’t know about it,” Giuliani said. “And I think that’s consistent testimony.”