Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and member of President Trump’s personal legal team, spent much of Thursday and Friday making false claims about the results of an FBI watchdog report, saying that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should be fired, and insisting that one of the FBI agents named in the report be thrown in jail.
Hours later, the president spoke to reporters and suggested the same.
The report, produced by the Justice Department inspector general and released publicly on Thursday, showed a number of top FBI officials — including former Director James Comey — acted irresponsibly during the course of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The IG report also concluded that FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page made poor decisions in trading a series of text messages on their work devices, some with anti-Trump sentiments. However, the report concluded that neither had allowed their personal opinions to interfere with their work or done anything criminal or illegal.
The report did not mention Special Counsel Mueller, who is conducting an investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump and his associates.
During an interview with Fox & Friends Friday morning, Giuliani nonetheless felt compelled to call for Mueller’s dismissal and for Strzok, who previously worked on the Russia probe and was removed from the case over his text messages with Page last summer, to be fired.
“They should end [the Mueller investigation]. I mean, the IG report basically tells you that both prongs of the Mueller investigation are either corrupt or answered,” he said. “…Let’s take a halt to the Mueller investigation. Let’s stop that and get rid of all the agents doing the Mueller investigation.”
Giuliani made similar comments hours earlier, during an interview with Sean Hannity Thursday evening.
“Tomorrow, Mueller should be suspended and honest people should be brought in, impartial people to investigate these people like [FBI agent Peter] Strzok,” he said. “Strzok should be in jail by the end of next week.”
Giuliani says "tomorrow, Mueller should be suspended" and Peter Strzok "should be in jail by the end of next week."
No evidence is provided to justify these demands. (via FOX) pic.twitter.com/kwHgE9fFYW
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 15, 2018
Later Friday morning, Trump himself held an impromptu meeting with reporters outside the White House, echoing Giuliani’s comments.
“Here’s the good news: I did nothing wrong, there was no collusion, no obstruction, the IG report yesterday went a long way to show that, and I think that the Mueller investigation has been totally discredited,” he said.
When pressed further, Trump waved off suggestions that he had misinterpreted the IG report’s findings, saying he had “been totally exonerated” and that Strzok should be fired.
“I am amazed that Peter Strzok is still at the FBI, and so is everybody else that read that report,” he said. “Peter Strzok should’ve been fired a long time ago.”
Trump deflects questions about why he keeps misrepresenting the IG report and falsely claiming it exonerates him, when it in fact has nothing to do with him. pic.twitter.com/KlrocX4H2E
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 15, 2018
The IG assessment supports neither Giuliani’s nor Trump’s statements. Nowhere in the report does the inspector mention anything that would undermine the Justice Department’s special counsel investigation, nor does it suggest how any of the officials named be punished.
The report does recommend the FBI develop internal guidance on a number of issues, including monitoring messages sent and received on bureau devices and adding “a warning banner to all of the FBI’s mobile phones and devices in order to further notify users that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy.”
FBI officials have since responded to the report, noting that, despite conclusions of no wrongdoing, it would take the inspector general’s recommendations into consideration, and would review potential employee misconduct for disciplinary follow-up.
Giuliani is one of many conservatives who have attempted to twist the IG report for political gain. On Thursday night, a group of Republican lawmakers, including Florida Reps. Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz, wrote to the Justice Department demanding unrevised versions of the report to try and prove parts had been “changed…in a way that obfuscates [its] findings.” President Trump himself tweeted that the report was “a total disaster” and blasted Strzok and Page.
On Friday morning, former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) attempted to connect the dots Giuliani had presented by suggesting that “anything Mueller is doing with his investigation is tainted” by Strzok and Page’s texts.
.@jasoninthehouse: Anything Mueller is doing with his investigation is tainted by the anti-Trump FBI agents pic.twitter.com/Ddx1OcnXSU
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 15, 2018
“These were the senior-most people at the front end, at the beginning of the Mueller investigation,” he said during an interview on Fox & Friends. “Anything Mueller is doing with his investigation is tainted by the fact that you had these people who had a political objective to take down Donald Trump.”
“Anything that Peter Strzok touched is contaminated,” host Brian Kilmeade added, prompting Chaffetz to nod in agreement.